Ayatsuri Ningyo
by piresntsukino
Summary: Akane Tsunemori uncovers a secret which opens a door to a dark world, where insanity lurks in the shadows and pits Akane against Mika Shimotsuki, one she thought she could trust. And what does Shinya Kogami have to do with it all, and why is he going to such psychotic means to protect her? [Rated T, turns into an M]
1. Meakashi-hen 1 : Hajimari

**Meakashi-hen : Hajimari** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Beginning_

 **MARCH 6** **TH** **2025**

The CAT machine whirred noisily around her, and not for the first time, Akane was all-too-grateful for the earplugs lodged in her ears, blocking it out. Ever since she woke up from her coma following an accident three months earlier, she'd been forced to have regular scans like this, once a week. It had been another three months to get back into the swing of things, and she always joked that despite being asleep for such a long time, she didn't really feel all that well-rested. She was fortunate, really; since her family owned a pharmaceuticals company, named Iryo, her scans were completely free of charge. It should be- she basically ran the company, after all.

Whilst she was in her coma, her cousin, Mika, had been taking care of things for her, which was always good- the company seemed to be as productive as ever, though the current drug they were manufacturing, which was a strong painkiller, was still in trials. That was rather expected though, so all really was in order. As she was getting dressed out of her patient's robe, her cousin burst in, flipping through a file, which were probably the results. Naturally, their technology was the fastest in the country, and if she was being daring, the world, so the results were almost imminent. "There hasn't been any change at all," Mika announced. "Your brain is still mostly healthy, apart from your complaints about memory gaps, but I'm sure they'll return in time. You have your diary from the times you're missing, don't you? If you try re-reading again, it might stir up some part of your lost memory." She looked up from the files.

"Good news, then," Akane flashed a smile at the company's vice president. "It's part of my therapy to read that stupid journal anyway, though I have to say it's hardly helpful."

"You don't get any sort of flashbacks, or shaky imagery at all? Nothing?" Mika prompted.

"Well, it's like reading a story- you can maybe see shaky images in the back of your mind, but you know it's not real," Akane replied. "I know you're all trying your best, and it's still not enough."

"One day it will be," Mika called over her shoulder. "Now hurry up, we have a meeting with Naosu's company president as well today. It seems they want to collaborate on something with us." She smirked to herself. "I told you hiring that Kamui guy was the best thing to do- now everyone wants to work with us. He works wonders."

"I know, I know," Akane replied, "You're always right, I get it."

"And don't you forget it!" came the snappy retort as her heels clicked further and further away from Akane's cubicle.

Mika had always been bossy, that much Akane remembered. There wasn't a whole lot Akane had forgotten, which was good – she remembered her family, her friends, her school, and most importantly, how to run Iryo properly and efficiently. It was just the time leading up to her accident that made her draw a complete blank, but her therapists and doctors told that was quite normal. However, for the best part of a year leading up to her accident, fragments of her memory were missing, and no matter what, she was determined to get them back- and she didn't want to rely on doctors to do that. She needed to prove to her family that she was strong, and could get through this herself; nobody was expecting her to, but Akane just felt that she had to. Her therapists said this was due to her knocked self-esteem following her 'accident', since she was unable to prevent it.

And she really should stop calling it an _accident_ and dancing around the topic. It was an attack, plain and simple, and it could even be classed as an attempt on her life. Somebody had attacked her, and despite all her self-defence training, she had been completely useless. Or maybe she fought back, she had no idea. But either way, the outcome was the same: she still ended up comatose for three months.

To her credit, Mika had been really nice to Akane when she'd woken up and was well on the road to recovery. Her cousin had even gone so far as to tell her information that _technically, she shouldn't have done, but she just liked Akane THAT much that she'd make an exception_. Mika had revealed the name of Akane's attacker to her. Once learning of that name, Akane had made plans – plans where she would be the one to bring her attacker to justice. Despite her new wish for the future, she knew she had obligations with Iryo, so wasn't pursuing her goal just yet.

But one day, she would bring the person who had attacked her down to his knees. One day, she would surely kill _Shinya Kogami_.

Yet she had never said that wish aloud, and kept that desire securely in her heart; nor did the smile on her face as she chased after Mika to the meeting with Naosu's company president show a single shred of the darkness she held within. She was good at guarding her intentions like that, but whether Mika – or anybody in her family – knew that particular skill, she didn't know. For some odd reason, having a secret from the family made her feel a little more liberated. She always felt like her family intruded way too far in her private life, but if she spoke up about it, they would shower her with guilt trips and emotional blackmails.

The odds were against her; even so, she wouldn't allow such a petty thing like amnesia prevent her from discovering the truth and why exactly Shinya Kogami had attacked her. Perhaps she had uncovered something terrible, and he had attempted to kill her to guard this precious secret of his. If this was the case, it only served to increase her almost desperate need to rediscover that dirty little secret. A secret that was worth somebody's life, and the consequences that came with it. That only left Akane questioning: _What? What is it? What is being hidden from me?_

 **MARCH 7** **TH** **2025**

It was late evening when she first saw him.

It had rained pretty hard all day, but she had finished work early and gone home, relaxing. She lived alone in a rather large house, and she always found herself wondering what it would be like if there was somebody else to share it with. Fill it with noise and laughter and conversation. Just thinking about it made her feel incredibly lonely. If she closed her eyes, she could almost sense it. The voice of someone she loved echoing down the hallways, maybe calling her name, or maybe they were embracing her from behind. What would it be like to have that?

She'd often confided in Mika, who snubbed her fantasies rather harshly. Her excuse for this cold treatment was simply: _"If I encourage your fantasies, you might start believing they're real! That would hinder the excellent progress you've made!"_

Akane had gone for a nice long soak, washed and conditioned her hair before getting into comfy clothes. She'd then padded up to her room armed with _The Republic_ by Plato, and turned the light on. When she did, she discovered with some distaste that in her hurry earlier that day to get to work on time, she'd left the window slightly open, so the wind was whistling through it, explaining why it was so chilly up here. Grumpily, she noted that some rain had splattered in on the floor, and she'd have to clean it up later. Which was mildly inconvenient for a relaxing evening. She put her book on her desk and hurried into her bathroom to grab a towel to soak up the water. Crouching down, she placed the towel on the puddle and stood up to close the window and preserve what little heat was left.

And it was at that moment the two of them first laid eyes on each other. Akane's body froze up as she stared at him (or would it be more accurate to say _sized him up_?) He had evidently been stood out in the rain for an indeterminate amount of time- he was soaked to the skin, droplets of rain running down his attractive face. He had hair as dark as the night itself, and his eyes as grey as smoke. He was saying something to her, but she couldn't hear from the distance separating them- but she was gifted at lip reading. Why did he seem so familiar? She peered more intently at his lips, trying to discern what he was trying to say. _I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry._ "I'm… sorry…" her lips subconsciously formed the words. When he saw she'd received the message, he flashed a tiny content smile at her. And then he began mouthing something at her again.

 _Good night. Sweet dreams. Good night. Sweet dreams._

With a shriek of realisation, she slammed the window shut. What if he was a stalker? She rushed out her room and down stairs and checked all the doors and windows on the first floor and then the second to make sure they were locked, though they did little to quell the uneasiness that had blossomed in her heart. She knew she'd have to keep that little encounter secret- Mika would say it was an unprecedented hallucination.

After that, she couldn't focus on her book, her mind reeling back to the stranger. Who was he? And why was he apologising? Did she… know him? She shook her head- she would surely remember meeting and knowing and being friends with a person – she remembered everybody else, didn't she? She went to bed with that same uneasy feeling, doing her best to ignore it. Negative emotions would hinder her progress, as Mika liked to remind her whenever Akane got upset.

 **MARCH 8** **TH** **2025**

Her phone beeping beside her bedside table was what woke her up the next morning. Blinking blearily, she looked around and saw that it was still dark outside, which meant that it was some time before sunrise. She checked the screen and confirmed that it was 2:17, and she barely stifled her groan of irritation. What was so important that it needed to be sent at this ungodly hour? She yawned loudly and unlocked her phone to read the 'urgent' message.

 _Do you want to know the truth?_

Akane's eyes snapped open, her heart hammering in her chest. What did this message mean? It was from an unknown sender, which was always annoying. Her mouth dry, she typed a response to the text. _The truth about what? I don't understand._

She waited for the response and nearly leapt out of her skin when her phone buzzed again. _Well, why you lost your memories. Why you were attacked. So, I'll ask again. Do you want to know the truth?_

Her hand shook, weighing up her options. This was the first lead she'd gotten in over a year… but she could still be walking straight into a trap. Strengthening her resolve, she swallowed and text back her answer, her thumb hovering over 'reply' before pushing down. _Yes._

The response was almost imminent. _Banken Facility. Passcode to get in is: 5651112259. On the top floor, there's an office. The door has a passcode: K-03-15-2004-K. The answers you need should be in there. Go now, whilst it's dark. It's undefended at this time- if it was, it would attract unwanted attention._

 _Are you going to tell me who you are?_

 _Not yet. Soon, I will. Not yet._

Akane sat in bed for another ten minutes, weighing up her options. She could follow the advice from the unknown number, and the only lead she'd had in months for information about her attack, or she could forget the whole thing and confide in Mika about it all. But… the Banken Facility? Why there? It was one of the many Iryo Company labs, but from what she knew, it was running tests and producing antidepressants, which was the company's main profit. She knew everything all the labs were doing in all their locations, and Banken was just another small part of it, and it didn't strike her as anything out the ordinary. As guilty as she felt about it, she made her choice – a quick survey around Banken wouldn't do that much harm – hell, it could even help her track down Shinya Kogami.

She decided to dress in easy-to-move about in, dark-coloured clothes. As quietly as she could, she unlocked her door several times (since the attack, she'd been on edge, so installed more locks), before stealing into the shadowy morning air. It was chilly, as expected of a mid-March morning, and she couldn't help but shiver. Yet she wasn't sure if it was the temperature outside that made her shudder, or the prickling sensation on her skin which made her feel like somebody was watching her. And if she was being watched, then was it a friend or a foe? Maybe it would be best to assume foe- if it turned out to be a friend, then she had a pleasant surprise; it was a foe, she would be ready for them. She slid into her car and started the engine, before steadily snaking her way to the Banken Facility thirty miles away.

After forty minutes of driving, she finally turned down the long driveway leading to the laboratory. It was shielded completely by trees, and in the darkness, it looked truly ominous and Akane supressed an unbidden tremble, and kept her eyes focused solely on the road. The Banken Facility, now that she thought about it, really was cut off from the rest of the world. Mika had always relished in telling Akane scary stories about the facility – how a worker went insane before the two of them were born and killed people inside of it. When she'd gone crying to her grandma about it, her grandma had laughed and said, " _Well, isn't Mika inventive? Don't cry, dear, it was only a story. Ghosts aren't real, and if they were, I'm sure they'd want to be your friends_."

As the message had dictated, there was nobody around except for her. Her mind also flitted over the possibility that she could be walking head first into a trap, but she knew there was CCTV installed, and she had her mobile handy in case of an emergency. With a nod to herself, she walked up to the doors. The lonely whistle of the wind did very little to quell her nerves as she punched in the code. _5651112259._ The door made a loud sound which echoed across the empty space, but Akane ignored it and pushed on.

It didn't get any less lonely or dark on the inside; if anything, it was creepier, and that omnipresent sense of being watched only increased, and Akane was convinced that when she took a step forward, she could hear someone else's footsteps behind her. _It's an echo!_ She told herself, but still, those childhood creepy stories crawled up on her. With an unprecedented burst of paranoia, she ended up running, looking for the stairs- she'd been to Banken a few times before, so she knew her way around. It had been daunting in the daytime, and was positively nightmarish in the dark. She thought she heard whispers in the walls, and maybe a scream, but at this point she was confident she was hallucinating. It took all of her willpower to not bolt out of there as fast as she could, but it did make her move just that bit faster.

After half an hour of nerve-wracking exploration and peeking around corners, she found the one she was looking for, right on the top floor. It was the only room up there with a passcode lock, so she brought her phone out to check it. Tentatively, she typed it in. _K-03-15-2004-K._ When the light switched to green, she pushed open the door and entered the office, relaxing only when she heard it swing closed behind her. She switched her phone's display on to find a light switch, and turned it on, grateful for the visibility that kept the shadows at bay.

She had no idea where to look for whatever she was looking for- maybe something that could store information, maybe like the laptop, or a tablet, or maybe a file? She frowned. It could look really out of place, or uniform. She had no idea why but she felt like she was quickly running out of time. She checked the bookshelf, but it was stacked full of medical books and books written about the Iryo Company. Next she checked the laptop on the desk, which was completely dead- a closer inspection revealed the battery was missing, which made no sense, and with a slight pang of dismay, she found herself asking: _what if the 'answers' were on the laptop? What if that person is tricking me? Giving me false hope?_ She decided to not give in just yet, and check the desk. The top drawer was full of general stationary, none which gave any clue as to why she was attacked, and the second one filled with notes about the drugs produced specifically at Banken.

The bottom drawer, however… was locked. Akane scanned quickly for a key, but found none, and with using her entire strength, she yanked the drawer out so hard the lock snapped. It required some effort, and she was panting from the quick burst. She then listened eagerly for footsteps or anything to indicate anybody had heard her, but there were none. There were two files in the drawer, one named 'Perfect World', and the other… _Target Juliet- Akane Tsunemori_.

"What the… hell is this?" Akane whispered aloud, discarding the 'Perfect World' file. Why was she called Target Juliet? Did this mean she really was a target? She opened the file hastily, watching it shake in her fingers, and read the opening entries:

 **Day 1:** _Juliet woke up today at precisely 10:17 p.m. There was evident confusion- as to where she was, but none that cast us in suspicious light._

 **Day 2:** _The situation has been explained to Juliet- the cover story, a random strike against her. Name of assailant not been revealed to her as of yet. Complained about missing memory. Hired therapists said this was normal, and they should return with help._

 **Day 7:** _Entered therapy to recover lost memories. Hired therapist at time has been covering tracks for us. DPW has made her more open to suggestion, and she's beginning to assent to suggestions._

 **Day 14:** _Fake memories successfully transplanted. Minor, yet progress._

 **Day 28:** _Taking commands easily. Programmed to listen to commands of ****, and unable to keep secrets. Or, if Juliet does hide things, she will reveal them to **** within a few days._

 **Day 30:** _Associates Target Delta with her attack. Juliet and Delta are now foes essentially. Target Delta should not be a problem, moving forward._

On and on they went, making progressively less sense. She re-read it, all the code names and blacked out words only adding to her confusion. Who had written this? Maybe she was being paranoid- maybe these were the conclusions from her CAT scans. Saying that, that would be optimistic. These notes were incredibly shady – if they were innocent, why would they have been locked in a drawer? She checked her phone for the time, and discovered with some horror that it was now creeping past 6:30. She put the files back in the drawer along and closed it, when she heard footsteps clicking along the corridor.

She barely had time to react when Mika had thrown open the door and yelled:

"What the fuck do you think you're doing in here?!"


	2. Meakashi-hen 2 : Uso

**Meakashi-hen : Uso** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Lies_

 **MARCH 8** **TH** **2025**

"What the fuck do you think you're doing in here?!"

Akane froze, like a guilty child that had been caught red-handed. Smiling inwardly to herself, she thought: _Yes, but isn't that essentially what you are right now?_ She dropped her head in shame and prepared to be yelled at whilst also thinking of possible excuses she could use to get Mika to relent. Suddenly, a light bulb flashed above her head as she got a brainwave, just as her cousin was about to start ranting and yelling.

Akane faked a quick laugh and said, "Nothing at all, Mika- I was just waiting for you!" she smiled at her cousin who had faltered. "I'd heard through the grapevine that you frequent this factory a lot, and well, I also heard that you come in the early hours of the morning."

"Right, and what does that have to do with you?" Mika had folded her arms and was pursing her lips, obviously tense and on edge. Akane simply had to pretend there was nothing to be worried about at all.

"I know I must have surprised you- sorry!" Akane put her hands together briefly in a symbol of apology. "It's just that there was something I wanted to talk to you about, in secret. Just between us. "I can trust you, can't I?"

"Absolutely," Mika nodded, closing the door. "Just answer me this: how did you get in this office? It has a password on it?"

Akane quickly thought of a convincing cover. "The door was already open when I came. You must have forgotten to lock it." She lied smoothly. "But can we talk?" Mika assented and closed the door. All Akane knew at that moment was that she would have to lie her way out of the situation. "The thing is, Mika, I want to track him down. _Shinya Kogami_."

"But that man attacked you!" Mika protested. "He's the reason you need therapy! Why on earth would you want to track him down?"

"Easy- I want to know why he attacked me," Akane responded. "I feel like it might help me; some closure, I guess."

"Akane, that man is no good," Mika said simply, leaning on the wall. "I'll make a prediction of what will happen if you two meet: that man will surely bring your doom, and you'll end up worse than you are. You don't want that, now do you?"

The words just fell off her tongue and out of her mouth, and she confessed to the man outside her house the night before, and his strange messages. _I'm sorry. Good night. Sweet dreams._ Mika listened intently, and Akane looked down her head. "So I guess asking for information about him would be too much?"

"Your guess is on the mark," Mika replied. "In fact, I'll organise a bodyguard, and I'll notify whoever to make sure this _stalker_ doesn't come back. You'll be entirely safe with us, trust me." _Somehow… I find that I can't…_ Akane's eyebrows moved themselves into a frown, before brightening up her face again.

"Tell me more about Kogami. Is he really so terrible?" Akane asked. "He might have made a mistake is all, or someone else could have paid him to attack me! He might not be entire to blame." She shifted awkwardly at Mika's expression, before her cousin sighed, before taking out her phone and tapping the screen a few times. Then, she showed Akane the display.

Staring from the screen and back at her was a familiar face. _I'm sorry. Good night. Sweet dreams._ His hair, when not dripping wet, was quite spiky, and his grey eyes seemed to have a bluish tinge to them. Additionally, in the photo Mika was showing her, he didn't look so sad. "Shinya Kogami." The way her mouth formed the name made it sound like poison. Akane flinched. Should she tell Mika or not? This was the stalker! After sixth months, he'd come to- come to what? Finish her off? Or apologise? _I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry._ "Your attack was only just the beginning, I'm afraid, Akane." Mika began looking at her phone again. "He's attacked several locations belonging to both Iryo and Naosu. While you were still in your coma," she held the phone out to show her a hazy picture taken of Shinya Kogami, who was evidently armed with what looked like a machine gun. "We had lots of serious talks about it. But for some reason, three months ago, he quietened down." She shrugged. "He's the leader of some gang, intent on bringing us down. You won't let him do that, would you?"

"N-Not at all, Mika!" Akane stammered. She had no idea how she hadn't blurted out he was the guy stood outside her window the night before, but she felt like something wasn't adding up. After all, everyone had secrets to hide.

"I won't put you in any danger, Akane," Mika replied. "I'll organise that bodyguard as soon as I can. I have some things to do here, so I'll see you later. Don't forget to respond to Naosu's President!" And added on as an afterthought: "And forget all about pursuing Shinya Kogami. No way are you doing that!"

"I- I won't," Akane replied shakily, before exiting the office. Was Mika the author of those reports? No, she couldn't be. The words of the file drifted through her mind as she made her way back down to her car, and drove straight back home, making sure to do all the locks up again. She was very shaken up, and the feeling of being watched had intensified that she was almost certain she could feel them breathing down her neck.

* * *

 _Outside Banken Facility, the Shinya Kogami had been listening in on the conversation. He'd bugged all of Mika Shimotsuki's scrunchies, since he knew she wore them every single day. And though he'd tried to keep it under wraps, he was really pissed, and wanted nothing more to get in that room and end Mika Shimotsuki and her lies. Akane had been talking to Shimotsuki about wanting to track him down- and Mika had talked shit about him, and judging from Akane's reaction, she was evidently distraught by it._

" _How dare you talk crap about me?" he growled from his hiding place. "I'll kill you, bitch."_

* * *

Mika Shimotsuki watched Akane Tsunemori go in silence, before walking as calmly as she could to her desk, crouching down and studying the bottom drawer. It didn't look like she'd managed to break into it, but she had better check, just in case. She supressed a strangled cry when the drawer easily slid open, and she saw that her files had been disturbed. Her hands balled into fists. "Stupid bitch. How the fuck did she know they were here?" she growled. "Even after I gave her another fucking chance- she goes and throws it away. Why?" she stared out the window. "She could carry on living a perfect life like this. Like this, she's worth something. She ruins everything, I swear to God."

She had to place two calls. The first call rang twice before the recipient picked up. "Shimotsuki. What do I owe the pleasure?" he chuckled. "Why, it's usually me calling for you." She shuddered in repulsion at his tone.

"Whatever, Togane," she responded, mentally kicking herself for not thinking of a better retort. "I have better things to do with my time than waste it talking to you."

"You wound me, Shimotsuki," his tone was cutting. "Did Juliet piss you off? I can tell she's done something to grind your gears."

"She found the file."

"Ah," his tone stopped being borderline mocking and turned hard. "Did it trigger anything?"

"No. She has no idea who Shinya Kogami is," Mika smiled bitterly to herself, celebrating this one tiny victory over her superior- though technically, it was _her_ who was superior in this, the one who truly had supremacy over Akane Tsunemori. "Togane. Watch her. Make sure she doesn't go completely off the rails. Meanwhile, we'll have to top-up her supply. In a few days, this little blip will be forgotten. Do you understand me?"

"I understand," Togane replied flatly. "I have to say, she really is difficult. I suppose you'll be ordering a _bodyguard_?" She understood the implication.

"Yes," Mika snapped.

"Alright then, do what you have to," Togane's face had split into a smug self-satisfied smirk, though Mika had no way of knowing that. "But I warn you, Shimotsuki, if you get my mother involved in all of this, or you go back on your word, I won't hesitate to snap that pretty little neck of yours. Understand?"

"I understand," Mika ended the call, frowning at it. She hated working alongside Sakuya Togane, yet she hadn't the choice; without him, her dreams would still be precisely that- dreams. But now, she was well on her way to making them all very real. Akane Tsunemori had once been a barrier to them; but Mika had smashed through that blockade and used it to defend herself. She searched for the next number and called it, and the picking up time was much slacker than Togane. "Good morning, Mizu-chan," Mika used the nickname she knew Shisui Mizue hated anyone except her _precious Kamui_ using. "I have a job for you, and I'll pay double your usual rate."

 **MARCH 9** **TH** **2025**

The next day, Akane was already getting used to her new bodyguard, Shisui Mizue. Though the woman didn't seem like much, with one eye missing, after all (which was a shame, her eyes were a pretty blue colour), Mika claimed she was as hard as nails and as tough steel. Despite the negative report, the woman was friendly, but always seemed to be wary. She was a fan of similar books to Akane, so they had a common interests and a frequent topic of conversation.

Mid-afternoon, one way or another, they ended up talking about it- Akane's situation. "So I heard you suffered some memory loss," Shisui commented. "I'm sorry, it's just that I find it all rather interesting. Could you tell me more about it?" Akane had no idea why, but she recounted the tale of what little she knew of her attack, and the coma and subsequent memory loss. Shisui listened intently, on the edge of her seat, and leant back once Akane had finished speaking. "Shimotsuki told me that there was an unexpected visitor that came by here a couple of nights ago. She didn't give me a description, though. Could you do that for me? I need to know who I'm looking out for, exactly."

"Oh, uh, right. He was quite literally a dark, handsome stranger," Akane joked. "He had black hair, and grey eyes. Or maybe blue. I couldn't tell." She didn't feel like she was being particularly helpful, but Shisui extended a hand and clasped Akane's fingers, stroking almost soothingly. Akane looked up, and her eyes were soft, friendly and open. Almost saying, _you can tell me anything_.

Then those eyes hardened and became as cold as ice. "Tell me, was that man Shinya Kogami?"

"What? Um, no, of course not," Akane frowned. "I would be much more worried if it was. It was probably just some random creep, I'm sure." Still, Shisui's sudden change in disposition unsettled her slightly.

"You're lying," Shisui countered flatly. "It was him, wasn't it?" She rolled her eyes (it would be more accurate to say _eye_ , Akane thought dryly) and her grip on Akane's hand tightened, and Akane found she could no longer squirm out of it. "Answer this, as well: What were you doing at Banken so early in the morning? It's not normal for someone to be awake at that time, you know." Akane said nothing. "I suppose you found the file, _Target Juliet_." Akane flinched at her apparent codename- who exactly was in on it? Mika? But how- she was always on Akane's side, and besides, her name wasn't mentioned anywhere in the report. "You were supposed to forget about it." Shisui pulled Akane's forearm onto her lap with one hand whilst the other delved into a pocket and brought out a syringe filled with clear solution. "Don't move, alright? Or this will be messier than it's already going to be."

"What is that?!" Akane demanded, trying to pull her arm back, but Shisui was much stronger than she looked. "What are you doing?!"

"Target Juliet…" Mizue smiled ominously. "You already know, don't you?"

"What?!" Akane spat. "Just… what do I already know? I don't understand what the hell you're on about."

"The time for playing dumb has long since passed," Shisui made a short chuckle. "Just give up." She began to steadily move the syringe to Akane's vein, which stood out, a proud blue against pale skin. "Now then…"

"Stop…!" Akane begged, even though she knew pleading was worthless at this stage. Still, maybe if she fought hard enough, she may have a chance. "Stop it!" The scream tore from her throat, and seemed to reverberate in her otherwise empty house. Her eyes widened out of fear, and she felt the blood quickly drain from her face. _No- no, this couldn't be the end!_ " **I said stop**!"

She shut her eyes and embraced the end. Was her life all that good? The bits of it that she recalled just seemed average, borderline boring.

There were several loud bangs, and the events unfolded right in front of her eyes as her entire body seemed to freeze up. It was like she was watching a film- a horror film- which she had been forced to participate in. A strong, unexpected force blasted through the room, knocking both Mizue and the needle away from Akane. Automatically, Akane crawled backwards and noticed that the door into the room had been completely kicked down, right off the hinges. Who or what could have done that? And just how strong were they?

That was when their eyes met again; hazel into blue steel. The person who had apologised to her and wished her good night and sweet dreams. Shinya Kogami. Then her eyes flicked to the weapon in his hands- a metal baseball bat, which was presumably the thing he'd used to attack Mizue. He smiled at her before walking over to Shisui, who was groaning and clutching the side of her head, his face an iron mask, entire unreadable. Without so much as blinking, he raised the bat high above his head and brought it crashing down onto Shisui Mizue's skull, again and again and again.

Akane peered around his legs in horror at her supposed bodyguard, whose eyepatch seemed to be the only recognizable thing about her face, and she barely repressed the urge to vomit. Then her survival instinct kicked in. _What happened? What happened? What's going on? Somebody- help me!_

The quiet click of Kogami dropping the bat on the floor, almost gently, snapped her out of her internalised hysteria. She had to scream, but couldn't, and could only watch in horror as he slowly made his way over to her, as if recognizing that she was in shock. _What's he going to do? Snap my neck?! He's going to kill me and finish the job! That's why he was saying sorry- he felt guilty that I had to die!_ Akane found her thoughts getting more and more erratic, and she could have sworn she was going to go insane.

Yet her body refused to move, escape from the imminent danger. Shinya Kogami simply knelt down in front of her, and reached his hands out in that same mute, almost lucid state. _Snapping my neck or strangulation, which would I prefer?!_ Akane screamed inside her mind, almost catatonic.

He did neither.

He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her in for a hug, and holding her close to him. Then he whispered, his voice full of a tiny joy. "Akane. I finally found you."

* * *

 **[Author's Note: Yeah, so yandere Kogami. This was the prompt for this fic, and suddenly it got really complicated as such. I'm trying my hardest to keep everyone in-character as I can, even Kogami. Just know that I am trying, it is really hard to write Kogami, a pretty stoic guy, as a yandere.]**


	3. Meakashi-hen 3 : Ai

**Meakashi-hen : Ai** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Love_

 **MARCH 9** **TH** **2025**

For some odd reason, the feeling of his arms around her made her feel like she was in a tiny little sanctum, just for her. It was strange- it made absolutely no logical sense for her to even feel that way; after all, this man had just killed somebody. And this man had also attacked her. Or had he? Akane felt herself beginning to calm down and think rationally- if Shinya Kogami meant her any harm right now, then he would have already hurt her. But no, he'd put down the bat which he'd used to kill Mizue (and looking at her now, saying that was unrecognizable was exaggerating: there was just a very strange dent in her skull was all, and her eye was glazed over) and was now hugging her, as if in comfort.

Slowly, as if not wanting to spook her, he pulled away, but kept his hands on her shoulders, and just looked at her for a few moments. Then, just as slowly, he leaned in again; without saying a word, Shinya Kogami pressed his lips to hers. For a while, the kiss was soft, and then it turned hungry. It wasn't the gentle kiss of a shy couple on their very first date, nor was it the kiss of a person driven solely by lust. He kissed her with the frenzied desperation of a man who was quickly dying, and believed that her lips held the secret to immortality. She hadn't realised just how tight his hands were on her shoulders, and the pressure of his grip and the grinding of his lips against hers made her thoughts whirl out of control again, and she found herself responding to his touch. Then the pressure eased off slightly, and Akane thought he would end the kiss, but it turned sensual. A tingle of warmth shot from the silken contact of his lips and tongue straight to her core, and her body melted into his. She then became hyperaware of Kogami's hard muscles against her breasts, the crushing hands clutching onto her, and the wet sliding of their mouths. And then it was over.

Again, for some odd reason, it didn't feel at all like she had just kissed a stranger. It seemed familiar.

She hadn't much time to dwell on that strange feeling as a sudden drowsiness seemed to overtake her, and she felt her body go slack. Before she fell to the floor, he sprung forward and caught her so she didn't hurt herself. For a brief moment, he simply studied her face, and noted, with a little bit of relief, that in sleep, she was still the same. Gently, he laid her on the floor, making sure she wasn't in an awkward position, before bringing out his phone.

It barely rung when Nobuchika Ginoza picked up. "Kogami."

"I need you to come here. I need a clean-up," he admitted.

"Kogami…" he heard his best friend's exasperation through the phone, and felt just a bit guilty. "How many more times must I tell you? Keep your emotions in check!"

"I'm sorry. I might've overdone it again," he waited for a shout, or a rant, but nothing came except for a disappointed sigh.

"It's fine. Get her to Shion's." The order was heard, loud and clear, and the phone call ended as abruptly as it had started. Kogami cast a final look around the room before bending over to scoop up the unconscious woman in his arms, and that small action alone brought along with it a plethora of memories from times long gone. But he didn't really have much time to dwell on that now, as he carried her out the house to his car, which he'd concealed outside the house grounds. He slid her in the backseat, and was unnerved at just how quiet she was. Like he said before: no time to dwell on the past. His current destination was the current house of Shion Karanomori.

Shion Karanomori herself was reclined on her bed, a cigarette in between her lips, alongside her partner, Yayoi Kunizuka, who was drinking a cup of tea and trying her best to ignore the smoke wafting up her nose. It had been Shion's first day off in a while, so evidently, that meant they couldn't waste a single minute of it. Shion closed her eyes, grateful for her nice uneventful day.

Almost the instant she thought that, the doorbell rang, almost ring on cue like a bad joke. She decided to ignore it, but it rang again. "You should answer that," Yayoi told her. "I don't think they're going to go away." With a groan of annoyance, Shion swung her legs off the bed and pulled her robe from off the floor and impatiently pulled it on.

"What?!" Shion snapped when she pulled open the door. "Jeez, can anyone get a day off around h-" The words died in her throat when she saw just who her visitor was and who was with him. It was a blood splatted Kogami, and a comatose Akane Tsunemori. "Aka…ne… chan…?" Shion whispered the woman's name, before snapping to attention. "You'd better come in."

"I'll explain everything, but I need to be kept off the radar for now," Kogami promised as Shion indicated for him to put Akane on her couch. "Gino's explained everything to you, right?" Behind them, Yayoi entered, fully dressed and as withdrawn as ever, studying the scene carefully. Though she didn't say anything, she hovered over Akane, looking extremely worried. "I killed her… _bodyguard_." Kogami clenched his fist. "Look like they were trying to wipe Akane again. I couldn't sit by and let that happen."

"Huh, she's been hit with a really strong sedative and maybe make her more open to suggestion- a strong variant of _Perfect World_ , maybe," Shion commented looking at her computer screen. "But it doesn't look like it would cause memory loss. You sure about that?"

"I heard Shimotsuki on the phone earlier this morning," Kogami replied neutrally. "So yes, I'm sure. I brought her to you because I want another chance. We have to move in now, but I don't think she'll trust us after witnessing…"

"You killing somebody?" Yayoi finished for him, coolly sipping her tea. Kogami glanced over to her and nodded stiffly.

"Admittedly, I do kind of work for Iryo," Shion smirked, lighting another cigarette. "Only if to not get you the down and dirty about Akane's condition."

In annoyance, Kogami brushed his hand through his hair. "I don't know how to get them to stop giving her drugs. If she's at full recovery she shouldn't need to be kept in a cage. I need to interact with her if she's going to remember me at all! What the hell are they even gaining from all of this?!"

"Cool it, Shinya," Shion snapped. "Though I can't technically reverse the entire effects of the drug- it seems Shimotsuki's been topping that girl up with Perfect World for three months- I can minimise the current hit of it. And, I'll get you another chance, but you owe me." She stood up and began to prepare different syringes, which made Kogami extremely agitated. "I can give her counter drugs to minimize the effects, but in the meantime, Shinya, don't do anything so rash. It would've been fine if you left Mizue alive. At least you didn't kill someone who people would actually care to look for, so my warning - watch what you do." She finished preparing the syringe and brought it to Akane's forearm. "She'll forget every instance she saw of your face in the past twenty-four hours. If you say she saw you a few nights ago, then she'll remember that. I'm also taking advantage of the Perfect World drug already in her system, and telling her that she went to bed as normal that night, and the bodyguard Mika was meant to be sending hadn't shown up. I'll also say she and Mika had a fight and she just wants to ignore her for the moment. And to relax, tomorrow, she'll visit Amai Tea Shop at mid-day. 1200 hours. Sound good?"

"Sounds good. And that's kind of an ironic place, isn't it? Was that on purpose?"

"Well, I'm giving you a chance to have your first date again."

 **MARCH 10** **TH** **2025**

When Akane woke up the next morning, she felt an overwhelming annoyance at her cousin. They'd argued yesterday, and she was still angry. Mika must have been angry too, which explained why she hadn't bothered ordering a bodyguard for her as protection against that stalker. Silently, she shivered at the memory and swung her legs out of bed. She wasn't bothering with work today – she could always call in sick. And maybe she deserved the day off, what with all that was happening.

Her mind flitted back to yesterday, and the strange files. Was someone watching her at this very minute? Well, she mustn't let them see that she had seen the files. What could she do today? She wondered briefly to herself.

She'd heard reports and recommendations from work about Amai Tea Shop, so if she was claiming the day off, she could always go and check it out, see if it lived up to its reputation. A friend of hers, Kaori, had recommended the strawberries and cream tea. Yeah, she would go there for lunch. And if it was awful, then she would forget all about it.

* * *

She didn't call Mika, and even blocked her number. Akane and her cousin had never fallen out like this before, but Akane just felt like she couldn't stand the woman at present, and needed a day devoted entirely to herself, without Iryo rearing its ugly, medical head for once. She even hummed a little as she walked down the street to Amai, venturing at a short skip as she entered. Ordering the strawberries and cream tea, she sat down at a table just to the left of the building. Her favourite book, _Pride and Prejudice_ , was on the table next to her; she was just about to start reading it, when:

"Are you expecting anyone, or is this seat empty?" a man's voice spoke up next to her. Her eyes travelled to the right to see a relatively attractive man in a suit stood there. Suddenly, shaky images sped through her mind, and she creased her eyebrows as a headache formed. "Can I sit with you?" Why did he look so familiar? For some reason, her mind flicked back to that apologising stranger a few nights ago.

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure," Akane nodded, the ache dulling slightly.

He sat down opposite her, and his face became concerned when he saw her expression. "Hey, are you okay?" he reached out, almost touching her shoulder, but Akane straightened up and smiled.

"Oh, sorry! Just a headache from work," she grinned. "I'm Akane Tsunemori. Sorry for worrying you just now."

The man held out a rather official looking badge. "I'm Hibiki. Hibiki Kogami. I work for the CID."

 _Kogami._ Akane felt her eyes narrow of their own accord upon hearing that name, yet she knew she had to play the game safely, and pretend to be innocent. "Funny, your surname seems kind of familiar," she commented as Hibiki put his badge away.

"Well, it's a popular name, what can I say?" he laughed. "Oh, look, we're both having the strawberries and cream."

"A coincidence," Akane smiled. "What do I owe the pleasure, Mr. Kogami?"

"Ah, Hibiki, please," Kogami smiled, before sipping his tea. "You are Akane Tsunemori, of Iryo Pharmaceuticals, right? From what I've heard about you, you practically run the place."

"That I am, and that I do," she answered both his questions. So much for Iryo not rearing its head.

"There are some things my team and I would like to discuss with you about your company, Miss… Tsunemori," the way he said her last name seemed to tell her he was kind of sad. "But we can't discuss them here." He produced a piece of paper from his pocket and pushed it to her. "My team and I would request your presence at this meeting tonight to discuss it. Here's my number, so you can call me at any time to cancel." His face darkened. "Though, I really do think you should come. It's quite urgent." He sighed. "That's for later though. I know it's natural for a young woman to be suspicious when a stranger asks her to go to a strange location," he laughed, "So that's why I decided to talk to you- this may sound a little weird, but we've kind of been tailing you for a few days, just to make sure you're not involved. You need to trust me for this whole thing to work." _Shit, did that mean he'd seen me sneaking into Banken? Was it one of these guys who gave me that feeling of being watched?_ Now she really had to know just what was going on.

"You said it's about Iryo? I'll help in whatever way I can then, Mr. Kogami- ah, I mean, Hibiki," she held out her hand, for him to shake, and he gladly accepted, shaking it firmly with a warm smile plastered across his face.

"It will be a pleasure working with you, Mr. Kogami," Akane nodded. She then thought about calling Mika to tell her about the CID investigating the company; as soon as her hand touched her phone, she saw Kogami frowning deeply, and that seemed to push her into not calling her overprotective cousin. She could make her own decisions without consulting Mika- she was older than her anyway! She shoved her phone back in her bag, and brightened up considerably. "I assure you, if Iryo is doing something unethical, I'll be sure to stop it in time."

"Why would you assume they're doing something unethical?" he challenged her, a small smirk on his lips.

"Well, why else would you be investigating them if they weren't? Unless you're interested in endorsing our company, then you should have just said! Did you know that Misako Togane has already done just that? Her support has really helped us," Akane told him.

"You're smarter than I had you down for," he joked.

"I don't know whether to be complimented or offended," she countered, making him laugh.

"How about both?" he suggested with a slightly teasing tone, but unlike the one Akane had heard Sakuya Togane – Mika's personal assistant and bodyguard – use, there was absolutely no sting to it. Just light-hearted fun was all. "Is that _Pride and Prejudice_?" He nodded at the book left on the table, long forgotten. "Looks like you like it a lot, from the condition it's in."

"Yeah, it's my favourite book," she laughed. " _I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve._ " She quoted. "I've read it so many times, I can quote parts of it."

" _Our scars make us know that our past was for real_ ," Hibiki said, with a strange sort of voice that was both joyous and sorrowful at the same time. "That's my favourite quote from the book. I don't know, I suppose I can relate to it."

"My favourite quote from that is actually: _There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me_ ," she placed a hand to her neck. "I can sort of relate to that, I guess."

"Huh, I suppose I can tell what kind of person you are, then," Hibiki looked down into his cup.

"And what would that be?" Akane challenged.

"A very strong and moralistic one," he replied, and Akane couldn't held the heat blossoming in her cheeks.

"Say, Hibiki," she took a quick gulp of her tea. "Do you know a man named Shinya Kogami? You two do share the same last name."

"Like I said, it's a common surname," Hibiki sighed. "Why do you ask? Are you looking for him?"

"Sort of," she confessed. She had no idea why, but she felt as if she could be open around Hibiki. She felt like he was drawing her in, kind of like gravity. "I was told he was behind my attack six months ago. So I want to talk to him and understand why he did that."

"If you want my honest opinion? Don't," Kogami's smile was gone. "I don't think Shinya Kogami was behind your attack. Not after what we managed to find. But that's a topic for tonight," he quickly directed the conversation away from himself (no, Shinya Kogami, because right now, he was _Hibiki_ Kogami). "It's such a nice day, dark topics like that can wait."

"I suppose you're right. I suppose you must be a busy man, working for the CID and all. I'm sorry to have kept you," Akane apologised. "Though it was really nice meeting you!"

"What? Nah, I have team of six, there's seven of us in total," he told her. "They said I could take as long as I want persuading you to come talk to them. And work's kind of boring, if you catch my drift."

"I hear you," she turned her nose up in mock haughtiness. "I suppose you can stay with me today. It's not like I had plans or anything."

"Oh! If I'm intruding, you should have just sai-"

"I'm joking, obviously!"


	4. Meakashi-hen 4 : Kaimei

**Meakashi-hen : Kaimei** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Explication_

 **MARCH 10** **TH** **2025**

The dressed wrapped her in light pink chiffon and ended in frills at her knees as if she was wearing a rose, and she seemed to practically radiate her beauty as she sat silently in the car next to Kogami. She emanated an aura of firmness while Shinya (no, his name was Hibiki now, dammit) still felt the heat rise up to his skin. He was both attracted and terrified of her presence and he loved it.

As promised, Hibiki had come to pick her up at eight o'clock, and she had been ready by then. She'd laughed and said it could be 'their little secret', since she hadn't told Mika. When Hibiki laughed, she had furtively revelled in the sound of it, how happy and carefree it was.

In the end, they'd spent the whole afternoon together. Once they left the coffee shop, they had gone for a long, meandering walk in the park, and he'd even been so gentlemanly to offer her his coat when it had become overcast. Whilst it was sunny though, he'd bidden her to wait on a bench, and rushed off quickly, and came back holding two ice creams, both of which were peach flavoured. She'd been surprised that he had managed to guess her favourite. Then she'd accepted his terms, and he said he'd pick her up at eight.

She'd expected a tiny office, hell, maybe even a fancy restaurant for this meeting with his division from the CID, but no, Kogami pulled the car up outside a huge fancy house, that was considerably smaller than hers but ten times nicer. Whilst Akane's home was more old-fashioned, this one seemed to be incredibly contemporary.

When they walked in, Kogami hung her jacket up before leading her to a grand room, where the rest of his squad were waiting. There was a dark haired man with green eyes and glasses, an old-ish man (Akane would place him in his late fifties), what seemed to be an excitable kid, a woman with blonde curls and lots of make-up, who was sat next to a woman with raven black hair and blue eyes, who blinked slowly at Akane. The ginger kid was the first to break the silence which had quickly descended.

With a slow whistle, he winked at the pair and commented, "Wow, Ko, you've got a real cutie with you there!" Next to her, Kogami tensed, and if looks could kill, that ginger boy would have died a million deaths at this point, most of them probably excruciating.

The green eyed man sighed, pushed his glasses up. "Both of you knock it off," he warned. "Calm down, Kogami." Kogami seemed to relax, and for some reason, Akane did as well. During the time this exchange had been going on, the blonde haired woman had staggered to her feet and danced lithely to where Akane was stood at the doorway.

She clasped her hands around Akane's and said, "It's nice to meet you, Akane! I'm Shion Karanomori," Shion shot a mischievous glance at Hibiki, before leaning and whispering in Akane's ear, "Y'know, if he turns out to give you too much trouble, feel free to join me and Yayoi over there, in bed." At Akane's wide-eyed expression, she threw her head back and laughed heartily. "I'm joking, of course, Akane!" She shot another cheeky look at Kogami, "Unless you're up for it, of course."

"Shion, quit teasing the poor girl," Yayoi called from her place on the couch. Shion giggled, winked at Akane and sloped off back to her girlfriend, and Akane noticed that Kogami's grip on her shoulder seemed to have tensed, and seemed to remind her off something, but what? She found herself subconsciously placing a hand to her lips, and lowered it again, confused.

"Ah, to be young and in love!" the old man exclaimed. "I used to be just the same with my dearest Sae!" The green-eyed man seemed to tense and inhale sharply, as if something the old man said.

From a door on the right side of the room, a woman with a brunette bob walked in, holding a full tray of drinks – cocktails, by the looks of it – with a smile, "Alright, we're drinking in style!"

"Miss Risa, you always make the finest!" the ginger winked at her, before looking at the drinks. "Now, I don't mind if I do…"

Risa laughed, and said, "Ah-ah-ah, Kagari, I tailored them specifically to each person, so you don't want to drink Ko's, or you'll be out like a light!" Kogami stalked forward and selected his drink off the tray, smirking at Kagari, before leading Akane to the empty couch. Risa handed Akane a pink drink, and confided, "Trust me, it's a drink you'll like. Call it my intuition, or my special skill." Once Akane had taken a sip and told Risa how good it was, before placing it down on the table, Kogami pulled her onto his lap, but everyone just seemed to go with it. And hey, Akane didn't mind so much. It felt comforting. Where had she had a similar feeling before?

"So, Akane," Shion grinned at the younger woman, "We hear you have quite the high position at Iryo. Maybe you could pull some strings with money so the government can send the CID on a nice, relaxing hot springs holiday. Pretty please~"

"Uh, okay," Akane agreed. "I'll see what I can do, Miss Shion!"

"Hey, Akane, pick a card," a pack of cards was thrust under her nose by Kagari. Tentatively, Akane picked one, and neither she nor Kagari could see them; she kept it hidden away from him. She was also super aware of Kogami's chin resting on her shoulder as he looked at the card too. Kagari then flicked the cards from one hand to another, and proudly announced, "The Queen of Hearts!"

"Wow, Mr. Kagari, how did you guess that?!" Akane laughed. "I'm impressed." She thought she felt the grip Kogami had on her tighten briefly, but Kagari swiped her card and that pressure was gone.

"Magic, my dear," he joked. Hibiki rolled his eyes, but was taken aback when the cards were shoved under his nose. "Your turn now, _Hibiki_!" Kogami picked a card and showed Akane. Kagari flicked the cards again, did a comedic little spin, pointing at Kogami and announced, "The Joker!"

"You got it. Yay," Hibiki responded in a flat voice which made Akane giggle. Kagari shot a grin at the pair before dancing back to his seat, and the green eyed man stood up.

"I'm sorry, we haven't properly introduced ourselves," he said in a voice which seemed to command silence. "I'm Nobuchika Ginoza. I'm sure you already know Hibiki Kogami. This is Tomomi Masaoka," he indicated to the old man, who nodded, "The guy with the cards is Shusei Kagari, and those two over there are Shion Karanomori and Yayoi Kunizuka. This is Risa Aoyanagi, our resident cocktail maker."

"Except for you, Mister-one-drink-and-the-floor-looks-like-a-nice-place-to-sleep," Risa grinned, enjoying the evident irritation on the Ginoza's features.

"Well, we gathered here tonight to discuss Iryo Pharmaceuticals, did we not?" he crossed his arms. "The real reason we contacted you is because we do actually believe Iryo is conducting unethical and illegal experiments, obviously without your approval."

Akane's mind flitted back to the events at Banken the previous day. "Does it have anything to do with Banken? And Perfect World? And Target Juliet?" she blurted out, before clapping her hands to her mouth.

"You're considerably more informed than we believed, Miss Tsunemori," Ginoza peered over his glasses. "Do you know what Perfect World is, however?"

"I don't," she admitted.

"It's a drug that changes the way a person thinks," Ginoza told her. "They're more open to suggestion, and no matter what, they can hardly deviate from that suggestion, or the rules they've been given. In simple turns, people become zombies, essentially." He sighed through his nose. "It takes great willpower to smash those suggestions." He held up a tablet showing some blurry photos, but it would take an idiot to not see what he was showing her. They were taken from a distance, but it looked like something out of a bad horror movie. People strapped to tables and chairs, with an assortment of needles sticking out of them. She noted with some horror that one of the test subjects was evidently dead, his eyes bulging from his sockets, blood running down his face from his mouth and eyes, and froth around his lips like a rabid dog. "It's also potentially dangerous, and in some cases, absolutely lethal. One person we rescued has been changed forever, he keeps insisting that he has to do as mother tells him." He paused, put the tablet back on the table and studied her intently. "We also believe the drug and your attack six months ago… We've been investigating this for six months, believe it or not."

"What's Shinya Kogami's connection to Perfect World, then?" Akane asked.

"Who told you he was connected to the project?" Yayoi piped up.

"Uh, my cousin, Mika," Akane answered.

"Well, the accusations that the one who attacked you were one… Shinya Kogami… were false. We believe the one who organised your attack is Mika Shimotsuki, _your very truthful cousin_ ," she could sense the sarcasm coming off him in waves.

"From what we know, Shinya Kogami is innocent. Admittedly, he's attacked Iryo sites, but this was under our jurisdiction and our orders. It was to stop the tests, you understand," Risa broke in.

"Unless he's double crossed us in that time, but nah, he wouldn't," Kagari grinned cheekily.

"Little missy, have you heard of Naosu, or is Mika keeping that from you too?" Masaoka asked.

"Uh, no, we do business deals all the time," Akane replied, "Even though technically we're competitors. Why?"

"For now, we'll say Naosu is just as corrupted as Iryo," he nodded at Ginoza, who continued speaking.

"We suspect Mika Shimotsuki of conducting these Perfect World tests. Additionally, we believe you were the first test, and the most successful one for them so far. We also think that your amnesia is due to Shimotsuki's suggestions. She also has the intention of distributing it to the public. We don't know why or how. That is the truth, like it or don't."

Akane found herself leaning into Hibiki, glad for his support. She no longer felt embarrassed about being curled up in his lap anymore, since it just made her feel securer. Safe. Nothing could harm her there.

"Simply put, we need your help, Tsunemori." Ginoza looked at her. "Well, will you do it?"

Akane said nothing for a while, drinking in all the information. "Please, Akane, we need you!" Hibiki burst in, and Akane saw how worried and concerned his eyes were. "You can't go back there. They'll hurt you again!"

She closed her eyes, and gathered her determination. "Mr. Ginoza, Hibiki," she looked at the two of them. "I'll help you. I can't sit by when I can do something to stop people from suffering. Though I really won't be of much use to you, I certainly will try.

Ginoza held out a hand for her to shake, and she accepted it. "Welcome to the team, Akane. And believe me, your help could potentially be a game changer."

Shion squealed with delight, jumped out of her seat, rushed up and pulled Akane out of Kogami's lap and hugged her really tight. Though Akane had no way of knowing, she poked her tongue out at Kogami, and made her girlfriend laugh at his grumpy expression. Akane returned the hug a little nervously, but as fate would have it, it felt a lot like she was hugging her sister, her family. In fact, she felt accustomed to these people. Maybe… it had something to with her lost memories. That would be… wonderful.

She'd been bidden to stay at Hibiki's house, since Ginoza decreed, at this point, returning to the home Iryo had provided her was potentially dangerous, whilst Yayoi and Risa sneaked it to get some of her things. She still had Pride and Prejudice in her bag, though she requested some books for Risa to collect. _The Republic, The Great Gatsby, and 1894._ Risa had laughed, and said, "Wow, you're just as much as a bookworm as Sh- _ **Hibiki**_."

"Shibiki?" she'd tilted her head.

"I call him Shitbiki when I'm annoyed at him," Risa joked. "Which is essentially all the time."

 _Nice save,_ Kagari had mouthed at her from behind Akane's back. The team had split up after that, Kogami sloping off upstairs, Yayoi and Risa departing from the house, Shion vanishing into her room, giving a suggestive wink and wave to Yayoi and Kagari into the kitchen to make some food for Akane, leaving Ginoza and Masaoka to keep the esteemed guest entertained for a bit. Though she wouldn't admit it, she was kind of sad Hibiki wasn't there with them, and wondered where he had gone. Throughout the conversation, she noticed that Ginoza seemed to tense whenever the older man spoke, and each look was not filled with any sort of amity. She wondered if anything had happened between them at some point, but she knew it was incredibly rude for her to butt into the internal affairs of others. They talked about her work, their work, and somehow got onto the topic of food, making Akane hungrier than they were. Though the conversation itself was empty, it just felt nice to be talking to somebody outside of Iryo. Besides, Masaoka was quite humorous, and Akane couldn't help but liken Ginoza to the _tsundere_ archtype.

Eventually, Kagari flew in with a dish and cutlery, filled with takoyaki. "For the cutie," he bowed with a debonair grace, taking off a mock hat. "The king of the high street, but obviously much better than the ones you get from street vendors." He winked. Akane put one of the takoyaki balls in her mouth, before claiming:

"It's delicious! Where did you learn to cook?" she asked.

"Me," Kogami's voice resounded out from the doorframe. "What can I say? He was a challenge, and I'm not one for bowing out of challenges." Akane carried on chewing as she watched Kagari's back stiffen as he straightened up and pouted.

"What's that mean to mean, huh, Ko?!" he snapped. "I've always been a decent cook!"

"Sure, whatever you say," Kogami joked, enjoying the younger man's irritation. "Akane, I ran you a bath."

"Oh! You didn't need to, but thank you, Hibiki," she smiled. "Let me finish this and then I'll go up." Masaoka, Ginoza and Kagari nodded to each other and all stood up at the same time.

"If that's the case, I'm probably going to wind down for the evening," Ginoza excused himself. "If you need me, I'll be in my room."

"I'll probably go play video games for a bit," Kagari nodded and sped off faster than light.

"I'll be drinking in the kitchen, probably," Masaoka sighed with a little laugh. The three of them parted quicker than Akane could blink.

 _Well, that was weird._ She barely had time to dwell much on their strange behaviour when she felt Kogami gently take the fork off her. He then stabbed a takoyaki ball and held it up, and with a laugh, she opened her mouth and let him feed her. It was strange to be pampered by somebody else, but oddly pleasant. Kogami caught her questioning look, and simply said, "What? You've had a big shock earlier today, the least I can do is look after you to make sure you're doing okay. Okay?"

"Okay, fine then, Mr. Hibiki," Akane agreed, and let him feed her the rest of Kagari's meal. "You should cook for me sometime. Your student, so far, is the best cook."

"In that case, I definitely will sometime," he promised. "Well, the bath's all ready for you. Bubble bath, bath salts, the works. Wait, you don't know where the bathroom is, do you?"

"No, you'll have to show me," she replied.

"Right this way, my lady," he said with that same debonair Kagari had put on before, like a man straight out of the world of _Pride and Prejudice_. He led her up the stairs and to the door furthest along the corridor, and once she stepped inside the heat hit her, like she had stepped straight into a sauna. The bath was huge, making a large square on the floor, with dappled blue glass above it. The walls were lined with tiles, and everything just seemed to sparkle and glisten in the light cast by the candles Kogami had lit for her. "I ran it especially for you. I hope strawberry bubble bath is to your taste?"

"Uh… huh…" Akane nodded, still amazed by the bathroom. Kogami ruffled her hair affectionately and left her to it, so she quickly stripped as fast as she could and sunk into the water, which seemed to be just the right temperatures. She'd just settled in when the door opened again, and Kogami stood in the doorway, clad in nothing but a towel; in his arms was another towel, presumably for Akane. "Hi-Hibiki?!"

"Oh, sorry," he smiled at her. "I came to wash your back. It's not like you can reach it yourself," he put the towel on a stool in the corner. "I can also wash your hair, but… it's up to you." He shrugged. "I can get in after you get out though, so there's always that."

"Um. No, it's okay, you can come in," she told him. "I mean, you may as well, when the water's warm."

"Alright then," he nodded, and without a single shred of warning (or shame for that matter) he removed his towel, and Akane barely had time to look away to give the man some privacy. Still, that didn't stop her from sneaking furtive glances where she could, looking at his well-defined chest and just the general muscle he had. And how the gods had most definitely blessed him in every area. She herself couldn't stop blushing, hiding beneath the bubbles. "You know, I don't mind you looking." The look in his eyes seemed very suggestive, but there were hints of sadness as well. Akane didn't understand- why was he sad? "Well, uh… let's wash your back." He turned away to reach for some soap, and Akane hated how melancholy his voice sounded.

What she did next took both of them by surprise. Instincts seemed to take over, and she wrapped her arms around his stomach in a hug from behind, briefly forgetting to care they were both stark naked. Then her mind caught up with her. _Why did I just hug him? Why don't I want to let go?_ The thing was, she just… _knew_ that it was a method to comfort him.

It was a good thing she couldn't see his face. Shinya Kogami- and no, not Hibiki Kogami- was fighting back the urge to cry at her movements, but he gritted his jaw and got on with it. Ginoza's words from a few days ago floated through his mind. " _Look, Kogami, she's going to act like she used to, she's going to talk like she used to and she's going to think like she used to, to some degree. But she is not the person from six months ago. Just keep that in mind."_

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Akane finally released him. "I don't know why I-"

"Thank you," he said simply, before bringing her in for an almost crushing hug, nuzzling his face into her hair.

 _Akane. I finally found you._

"Did you say something just now, Hibiki?" Akane asked, not sure if the words she'd heard were really there at all.

"What? No," he finally pulled away, looked at her for a minute, and then swung his hand through the water and splashing her in the face. Spluttering, Akane managed to regain her composure and she returned the attack, and with a mischievous grin, Kogami scooped up some of the foam from the bubble bath and dumped it on her head. Akane pushed him slightly, and he slipped and fell in the water, splashing both of them with water and bubble bath. Akane couldn't help but laugh at his expression, but it was cut short as she was pulled underwater as well; even so, she emerged giggling.

 _Why don't I feel embarrassed at all? Why the hell don't I feel any sort of discomfort, being completely bare in front of this person?_ She knew she should be, and she couldn't put it together, like a complex jigsaw puzzle. If anything, she felt like she had just returned home from a long day at work.

After they had stopped having a water fight and wash each other's backs and hair, he'd respectfully looked away when she clambered out and wrapped a towel around herself, and she did the same for him. "Hey, Hibiki...I want to say thank you, for taking me out...and really, this has been the best, I was actually feeling very lonely for a while..." she admitted sheepishly. "I haven't had this much fun in ages. I never realised until now just how boring my routine is."

 _Akane, you shouldn't have to feel lonely. I'm here for you forever; I just wish I could tell you that. But saying that, you're not the same person I left behind. The old Akane is in there, I know she is._ Kogami looked at the smaller woman. He grabbed her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed it. "Anything for you." He winked. "Well, it's getting late, so we should go to bed. I'll show you to your room."

He scooped her up in his arms before she could protest and carried her down the hall to what was her room. Not as grand as the bathroom, but furnished nicely enough. He stared patiently as the wall as she pulled her pyjamas on- why Yayoi chose the silk ones she rarely wore, she didn't know. Once she was curled up on the bed, Hibiki sat next to her. "If you want, I can read some of this to you."

"Yeah, okay," she nodded sleepily. He got himself comfortable, and opened the book at the first page, and basked in the sensation of Akane cuddling close to him.

" _It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife_ ," he spoke the first sentence- how many times had he done that now, in total? He shook his head and continued to read, until Akane was breathing steadily and slowly, evidently in a deep slumber.

He placed the book on the bedside table as quietly as he could, as not to disturb her. He swung his legs of the bed and hovered over her, before leaning down and kissing her forehead, staying there longer than was necessary. Then he knelt down, still being as silent as he could, and his hand found itself caressing her stomach. "Hibiki…"

* * *

 **[AN: Sorry to be a bother, but could I ask that you please review if you like it? Criticisms as well, as long as it's constructive!]**


	5. Meakashi-hen 5 : Nichijo

**Meakashi-hen : Nichijo** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Everyday_

 **MARCH 11** **TH** **2025**

 _A bat. A baseball bat. Metal. Being brought up, and back down, hitting something which made a horrible wet squelching noise. She dared look up at it, and saw the thing it had been smashing into was a person. A person who was still alive, breathing, moaning and calling for help. The blood gurgling in the throat. Blood swathing down their face. Features unrecognizable. Who would do such a thing to a person? And why?_

Her eyelids shot open the next morning, the terrifying images still spinning around and around in her mind. It was probably from those horrific visions from those images Ginoza had shown her the previous night, of all those poor test subjects; then, almost selfishly, she found herself thinking about last night – the bath with Hibiki, how the touch on her back had been almost loving as he massaged it, and their impromptu water fight. Almost all of it seemed natural, and she just couldn't help but smile at the memories. There was no embarrassment.

Speaking of Kogami, she noticed that both her bedroom door and his bedroom door were open, and co-incidentally both were perfectly aligned. There was a distinct smell of cigarettes, one she knew from somewhere, and there was one poking out of his mouth, which explained it. He was shirtless as well, she noticed with a little more joy than anticipated or was necessary, and he was going through several drawers as if searching for something, and impatiently. In the meantime, she just sat and stared at him, until he caught sight of her and she saw his mouth turn up at the sides in a smile. Blushing, she hid under her covers, and heard him padding softly into her room. Then silence descended, and there was a few seconds before she found the duvet being thrown in the air, revealing a mischievously smiling Hibiki Kogami.

Almost impossibly quickly, he scooped her up in his arms, discarding the blanket, and captured her lips in his. Then his eyes widened and he faltered. _Shit. I forgot again. I guess I was just that glad to see her that I just forgot that it's not entirely_ _ **her**_ _._ He broke the kiss and stared at her for a few seconds. "Oh, sorry. I don't know what came over me."

Akane's mind was reeling, but not from the fact that _Kogami had just kissed her_ , but from the fact it seemed to bring back supressed memories. Someone kissing her, and her melting into it – yet who was it who had kissed her? Who?

She was brought back to reality as they heard the clicking of Shion's heels down the corridor, and her sing-song voice echoing off the walls and to the pair. "Oh, A-ka-ne~! Breakfast is ready, wakey-wakey!" She danced into the doorway, the same smile plastered on her face, and it didn't falter once she saw the couple. "Or you could eat Hibiki for breakfast if you'd like." She broke off into a fit of laughter at how embarrassed Akane got.

"Uh! Miss Shion! It's not like that!" Akane protested.

"Mmhm, honey, sure," she winked at her. "Go get him, tiger! Just know breakfast is on the table when you're done." She stalked off quickly, and Hibiki put Akane down on the floor, and stared at her face again. Did I know Hibiki before? Is that why I feel alright with him? Dammit, if I did then why hasn't anyone said anything?

"Well, we should get you down to breakfast anyway," he sighed, running a hand through her short locks. "Get dressed and I'll see you downstairs, love." He sloped off to his room, pulled out the first shirt he saw and hurried downstairs to where his squad was waiting. Akane looked at the pile of clothes Risa and Yayoi had dumped there and sifted through them, before selecting some that looked decent, and scurried after Hibiki.

A few minutes later, a dozy Kagari stumbled in, yawning. "Morning, you guys," he mumbled, before heading over to a drawer and pulling out some eye drops. "Good morning, Akane, did you get your beauty sleep?" he blinked to get used to the drops. "Oh, no need to answer that. I can already see that you have." The minute a shit-eating grin spread across his face, it curled up into an expression of pain as Yayoi slammed a rolled up magazine onto his head.

"Knock it off," she warned him, before unrolling the magazine and calmly reading it again.

"Once we're all finished, meet me in the board room. We have to discuss our plans for tomorrow." Ginoza managed to silence the chatter.

"Tomorrow?" Akane whispered to Kogami.

"Ah, right. We're breaking into Banken."

An hour later, and after breakfast and after Kagari had gotten dressed and sheepishly admitted to Yayoi that yeah, he had been playing video games all night again, sorry, they assembled in the board room, which was a rather official name for a room with a long table and a screen at one end. Kogami sat next to Akane, and shifted his chair so he could hold her hand where Ginoza couldn't see them – though Akane didn't understand why Ginoza would have an issue with it, since she had sat on Hibiki's lap the previous night. Ginoza, Masaoka and Risa were taking charge of this so-called investigation, she noted, but she recalled that Ginoza told her the previous night that they made the most progress when Kogami joined their team. Just who was Kogami, really?

Ginoza clicked the screen on and showed a layered plan of Banken. "I'm sure we're all aware of what Banken looks like, since we've been over this so many times," he started with too much exhaustion in his tone. "We've had to constantly watch this place, mark shifts, mark certain areas and security as well. For two months, we've done incredibly well to get this far. Except," he zoomed in on a hazy area on the third and second floors. "This area here. It's still massively unknown to us, and this is where we suspect they're performing the experiments."

"When I went there a few days ago, I thought I heard voices on those floors," Akane chirped up. "But I could have been imagining it, I don't know. But the doors that lead into that area were sealed tight, but it might open if I use my ID."

"Please tell me you have that on you," Ginoza glanced at her.

"I always keep it on hand, just in case. Suppose old habits die hard," she told him, which appeased him slightly, but tension lingered.

"We split into teams. Shion will be stationed here providing us back-up and acting as a guide. As usual, you all get earpieces."

"I'll go with Ginoza and Masaoka," Risa burst in. "Kagari and Yayoi, you'll be in charge of evacuating the prisoners. Shitbiki, you're protecting Akane and getting your hands on the files stored in the uppermost office. You've seen them before, right, Akane?"

"Right. Perfect World and Target Juliet," Akane looked down at her and Hibiki's intertwined hands as he squeezed her hand comfortingly.

"The plan's fairly simple. We head into Banken at around 0300 hours. Then we split up into teams once we reach the doorways on the second and third floors. Once Tsunemori opens the second floor door, Kagari and Yayoi will head into there and attempt to locate the captives. Tsunemori will then head up with us to the third floor and Risa, Masaoka and I will explore the unknown region there. Kogami and Tsunemori will then procure the files from the office, and escape the building as fast as they can. Due to the early time, we shouldn't meet much resistance, if any."

"We'll all have weapons, just in case. Stun guns, tasers, and several pistols if things get particularly nasty," Risa nodded at the cupboard on the walls. "And Akane will have Shitbiki. He's a weapon in himself." Akane felt as if something was being implied, but she missed it.

"Banken has security cameras," Akane butted in. "How are we supposed to deal with those?"

"Ara, ara~ Akane, oh ye of little faith," Shion sang over. "You have me, the hottest hacker in town on your team. Feel free to use me any way you wish, darling~"

Akane could only blink at the flirtatious woman's actions, as Hibiki pulled her protectively towards him in one-armed hug. It seemed everyone else was used to her erratic behaviour, however. Saying that, there wasn't a single person here who didn't stand out. It was kind of fun, and took her away from her monotonous, Iryo run life. Thinking about Iryo got her thinking about Naosu. Masaoka said they weren't exactly innocent in all of this either. So what did that mean? She daren't ask Ginoza, in front of everyone here, but she could ask Kogami later. It wouldn't be so terrible if she did. He wouldn't lie to her, right?

* * *

 **[AN: Kind of a filler chapter- I just wanted to write a bit of fluff and set off Akane's suspicions. Also, this is going to be a kind of long fic, longer than my other ones by a long shot :/ Please review, since it's them that's kind of fueling me on.]**


	6. Meakashi-hen 6 : Wana

**Meakashi-hen : Wana** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Trap_

 **MARCH 12** **TH** **2025**

Unlike her original trip to Banken, the lights were on, courtesy of the 'hottest hacker in town', who had also turned off the CCTV and was wiping any memory of Akane's ID ever being used. Akane really had to hand it to Shion, she was skilled at what she did… whatever it was. Kogami was sticking to her like a wet t-shirt, and she noted that he was one of the few people who had been given a pistol. A weapon that could kill someone, if necessary. But he wouldn't. Hibiki seemed far to gentle to ever be able to kill anybody.

They followed Ginoza's plan exactly, it was hardly foolproof, but good enough. On the second floor, they waved goodbye to Kagari and Yayoi, and on the third, Ginoza, Risa and Masaoka, before heading up to the top floor, where that lonesome office was. Locked again, she pulled out her phone and typed in the passcode. "Why do you have that on your phone?" Kogami asked, peering down at it. "Where did you even get it?"

"Huh? Oh, someone sent it to me through text," she answered. "I assumed it was one of your team, actually."

"Nobody mentioned that," Kogami said, pushing the door open. "I suppose Shion could have done. She's like that. Now, do you remember where the files are?"

"Sure. Bottom drawer of the desk," she called over her shoulder as she walked to the desk and tugged on the drawer, glaring in annoyance at it when she saw the locks were back in place.

"Here, let me," Kogami offered, hooking a hand around the handle and pulling, the drawer busting open, and allowing Akane to take the files out.

"Okay, let's get ourselves and these files out of here," she grinned up at him, and they both slid out the office.

"You know, a part of me is screaming that this was far too easy," Kogami pointed out as they exited the office and made their way to the stairs.

"Maybe fate is on our side, Hibiki!" Akane tried to chin him up.

"Or maybe not, _Hibiki_ ," a callous voice spoke out from behind them. "Leaving so soon? We haven't even started our show for such esteemed guests."

* * *

As soon as they had left the main party, Yayoi and Kagari drew their stun guns the moment the door clicked shut behind them and proceeded through the hallway, which despite the light seemed eerie. "Kagari. Stay close. Something isn't right."

"Huh, I was about to say the same thing. I'll act as look out then," he suggested, and she nodded in agreement. So they proceeded, ready to jump into action at any given moment.

Their footsteps echoed due to the metal flooring, and Kagari couldn't help but jumping into the shoes of the people trapped in this hell hole. What thoughts would go through their heads when they heard those footsteps approaching? They'd be terrified, all thinking: who is it next? And when the victim was selected and torn away from the relative safety of their cell, they'd all feel relieved that it wasn't them this time, and then they'd immediately feel guilty for feeling that way. They'd probably never ever see the person again, and they were happy about it. But secretly, underneath, they would still feel grateful. _I am alive, they are not. I am alive._ It was a sick and twisted mentality, but all humans in these conditions ended up adopting it. They could resist it, but they'd finally submit to it. Kagari knew that better than anyone. Knew what it was like to feel that guilty relief, and feeling sick to your very stomach, and disgust at the people around you.

He shook his head. When he said he'd help Kogami and the rest bring these sick bastards down, he wouldn't let his emotions get the better of him – considering, it was ironic of Ko to preach that and not practice it. The idiot going insane whenever Akane was in danger, ranting on and on about her all the time. He had nothing against Akane; she was cute, friendly and if he gave her time, she would probably be a really good friend. That's if Ko let her, but he doubted that anybody could control that gal, after what Kogami had told him about her. Kagari just wondered when Akane would finally wake up and be the person Kogami enthused about.

They came to the first dire looking row of cells and Kagari prepped his stun gun- he wasn't intentionally going to use it on the prisoners, but if those drugs had messed them up enough, he wouldn't really have a choice. He wished at times like these that he could be like Yayoi – calm and stoic in the face of adversity. He'd always been quick to anger, and somehow they managed to figure that out about him, and that was why he – "Kagari." Yayoi's quiet voice cut through his thoughts. "Don't think those thoughts anymore. Dwelling on the past won't change anything."

"I wasn't 'dwelling on the past'!" he protested, but she silenced him with a single cool glance. Yayoi was his big sister, in essence, so she knew him fairly well; though Kagari found Yayoi mysterious as they came. Her expression was always closed off and collected; there was no way to predict her actions or words. Yet he was predictable, and that was what allowed them to –

"What did I just tell you?" Yayoi flicked his forehead which could have been an affection gesture. She then gestured her gun towards the first door, and then without further warning, kicked it down, her gun poised. Kagari joined her in the doorway, and lowered his gun. The cell was… empty.

"What the hell?" Kagari thought aloud as they walked into the room. Yayoi placed a hand on the bed and creased her eyebrows slightly.

"It's still warm. Someone was here not long ago," she told him. "We'll check the other cells." He nodded and they split to cover more ground. Something was really wrong, but what? Where had all of these people gone? Subconsciously, his hands gripped even tighter around the stun gun, but all the cells were locked and empty, all the beds recently disturbed, but not the trace of a single soul around. And what was the worst was the suffocating silence, suspicious as it seemed.

They reconvened and headed to the last cell together, and Kagari allowed Yayoi to do the honours of kicking the door down; after all, it seemed like a pretty good stress reliever. Once the door had slammed noisily on the floor, they peered in, expecting nothing, but within two seconds of scanning they saw a very peculiar device placed in the centre of the room on a metal table. The green light on it switched to red, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that was probably a bad sign. "Oh, shit!" Kagari yelped and without further ado began pegging it as far away from the cell he could get in just a few seconds, Yayoi right on his tail. "Get down!" he bellowed, and threw himself down, hands above his head and winced in pain as his face smacked the cool metal. His gun clattered next to him. Not a second after his face impacted the floor, he felt a fiery blast scorch above his back, and the ground shaking as the wall collapsed.

Coughing, Yayoi was the first to sit up blearily, and reached for her earpiece. "Shion. There are bombs here."

"Yeah, I just now picked up on that… uh, sorry. You guys doin' okay?" her voice crackled through.

"We're fine. What's going on?" Kagari replied.

"Well… you guys better get out of there real quick, or you're gonna be in a world of pain in less than two minutes," Shion relayed off to them. "Someone figured out we were there- don't ask me how, I don't know – and now you've kinda given them your location."

"How many?" Yayoi asked stoically.

"Uh… let me see here… fifteen." Yayoi looked at Kagari, who nodded. "My suggestion would be to run your asses to Ginoza and his team on the upper floor. If you past the cell you've just blown up-"

"Hey, it wasn't like we did it!" Kagari snapped.

"- there's a set of stairs you can run up. That's as far as I've got, so after that, you're on your own."

"We understand. See you soon, Shion," Yayoi signed off.

"See ya, sweetie!" her girlfriend teased before the line fell silent. Indicating with her gun, Yayoi motioned Kagari forward, and the two carried on their way, just as the sound of fifteen sets of feet began to clatter onto the hallway.

* * *

Up on the third floor, the effects of the blast were felt as the ground shook dangerous. "Is everyone okay? Nobuchika? Aoyanagi?" Masaoka called over once the structure had steadied itself.

"We're all good," Risa replied. "But what was that, seriously?"

"Karanomori. What is going on?" Ginoza called in calmly to the team's resident analyst.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Shion sighed. "Sorry for the delay, I was just talking to Yayoi- that was a bomb just now. So I'm figuring someone's figured out that we're being a little naughty." She giggled.

"Take this seriously, Karanomori," Ginoza reminded the analyst sternly. "This is no laughing matter."

"Well, Yayoi and Kagari are on the way right now-" The instant she got the words out of her mouth, the two sped around the corner, the smallest of which made insane 'go, go, go' motions with his hands. Ginoza had only to ponder why before the two were pursued by fifteen (what could only be described as) soldiers. Without thinking about it, Ginoza pulled out his stun gun before noting the soldiers had pistols, which had considerable range above a stun gun, so he put it back and pulled out a tranquiliser gun. He noted with a bit of irritation that Masaoka hadn't even reached for his stun gun in the first place and had already fired two rounds. He levelled the gun just by Kagari's incoming neck and shot a soldier who went down faster than a ton of bricks and managed to trip another one. Yayoi had spun around and started shooting, leaping out of the way of a spray of bullets, pushing Kagari down with her; Ginoza and Risa had ducked, but Masaoka simply blocked them with his reinforced steel limb. From her position covering Kagari from the floor, Yayoi sent two tranquiliser rounds into the faces of the closest soldiers – however, another one ran up to her and kicked her square in the stomach, but Kagari leapt up and punched him right across the temple (which was hard to do from such an awkward position), and watched as Risa, Ginoza and Masaoka took down the remaining soldiers, all attempting to avoid the bullets rapidly fired at them.

Once all of the soldiers were snoozing on the floor, Ginoza scanned his teammates. "Was anybody hit?"

"Yeah," Risa grunted next to him. "Nothing serious, he just nicked my arm."

"Wow, these guys have worse aims than Storm Troopers," Kagari muttered darkly. "To think we ran away from those punks…"

"Just what is going on here? I thought there wouldn't be any resistance!" Ginoza growled, sufficiently angry now at how pear-shaped his plans had gone. They were hardly been the best laid plans, but they had the best safety measures to ensure this wasn't complicated by anything. And now that had gone to shit. It was in the early hours of the morning, and he was in no way inclined to put up with any of it.

"Yeah, well, you thought wrong," Kagari pouted. "Yeah, we didn't find anybody down there."

"Though somebody had been there a short while ago," Yayoi added, noticing Ginoza's vexation. "Wherever they are, they haven't gone far. I think we should move as a unit from now on."

"Hey, what about Akane and Shinya?" Risa pointed out. "They're on the top floor…"

"And away from this madness," Masaoka assured her. "I'm sure Shion's already contacted them. There's no need to worry, Ms. Aoyanagi."

"True. Well, we're wasting time here. We need to save those hostages," Risa told them, motioning down the corridor. The team followed her suggestion and pushed down the hallway into what seemed to be a balcony overlooking a large hall (which could have been a canteen or an exercise yard for the captives at Banken, Ginoza thought). Masaoka indicated they all stayed back and Ginoza complied for the time being- to work as a team functionally, they all had to trust the judgement of others. Masaoka then indicated for Kagari and Yayoi to observe the courtyard to spot if anything was amiss.

Peering tentatively at the courtyard, Kagari saw all the hostages had been gathered, and noted with horror that the youngest wasn't even five years old yet. Yayoi pointed at something and Kagari followed her finger to gaze at a man stood in the middle of the room, and empty space around him which nobody dared to enter, and that's when he saw it. The man was clearly holding onto something that seemed like a bomb, and had a detonator in the other, and would explain the bomb trap earlier. They pulled back from the edge so that nobody would see them, and Yayoi quickly detailed what she saw. She was the most observant of the group, and had a good memory to boot. "Shit," Risa muttered darkly. "Sounds like Akira Kitazawa."

"Akira… Kitazawa?" Kagari tilted his head.

"He's been a pain in the ass for the feds for a while now," Ginoza explained briefly. "He's the man who pulled off the serial bombings at political events…" he looked down. "Saying that, he never did kill anybody. It was mainly scare tactics."

"And he vanished about six months ago, a little after Akane fell into her coma," Masaoka finished for him. "Who knew? Iryo have been shielding him this whole time. I just wonder why?"

Nobody else had the chance to say much else before Kitazawa's voice floated up to them. "I know you're here, you hunting dogs that bring death! I know you are! I can see you! I know precisely where you are!" his voice sounded deranged, on edge… full out insane. "Don't you move! Don't you dare move… or I'll blow these pieces of crap to shit!"

"Shit!" Kagari hissed through his teeth, looking down.

"And don't you dare try and shoot me, either! I'll press this damn button anyway!" he warned them. "There is one way to save all these people though- my employer says that if you surrender Akane Tsunemori, then he'll let all of these people go free! He just needs Akane! One life for all of these is a really good deal!" he laughed. "He says that if you refuse, he'll just let these people go and get her! They'd love to be free!" He paused, almost expecting an answer. "So what are you going to do? Hand her over, or do we have to send these people after her? Look around you! There's children here! Surely, you don't want them to die?! So go on, what are you going to do? Tell me, tell me!"

"Go to hell!" the retort ripped from Kagari before he could stop it, and Yayoi jabbed him sharply in the ribs, all too late.

"I see. That's a shame! A real big shame!"

* * *

On the top floor, Kogami had pulled Akane protectively behind him, pulling out his pistol. With widened eyes, Akane saw just how hard his grip was – his knuckles had gone white, and his lips had curled back to reveal a furious snarl. What just happened to the gentle Hibiki of five minutes ago? The person who had washed her hair for her, read Pride and Prejudice to her? What happened to Hibiki? Why did he look so mad? He had a tranquiliser gun- he could just use that, right?! Then why wasn't he?

"Hey now, let's take it easy, Hibiki," Togane's tone was steeped with poison. "There's really no need for you to draw that thing. If you want to kill people, fine, go ahead. But think, what will Akane think of you if you do?"

"Shut up. Those who would hurt her are trash anyways." His voice seemed more like that of a rabid dog than a human anymore.

"Hibiki…?" Akane tried his name tentatively.

"Don't worry about it, Akane. I won't let any of these guys hurt you, alright?" his tone was much softer, much gentler, more like the Hibiki she'd gotten used to, and she relaxed for a moment. Then that dark side was back out, and the kind Hibiki was gone again. "If any of you tries to harm her, I'll tear you to pieces."

"Will you now? That's very interesting," Togane commented, before looking at his men. "Well, what are you waiting for? You're fully aware of what I'll do to you if you defy me."

The soldiers cast a single look at each other before charging at the duo. Without even hesitating for a split second, Hibiki shot the soldier that was nearest to them, before catching his falling body and using it as a shield for the other bullets, firing shot after shot into their enemies, with almost inhuman accuracy. He threw the tattered remains of the first soldier to the ground, and another ran up to Akane and grabbed her hair roughly. She knew basic self-defence and was about to show this guy he had the wrong idea messing with her when his body jerked to the side unnaturally. He flopped and writhed on the ground like a fish out of water, and she watched Kogami shoot him again and again and again until he'd stopped moving all together.

Then she saw it fully – the bloodbath that had just occurred.

Togane was nowhere in sight (she assumed he'd fled halfway through the massacre), and had abandoned the bodies of his men. The first one didn't even look human anymore with parts of his body, especially his face, was horribly disfigured by hundreds of bullets, and the rest were sprawled unnaturally with their own pool of blood surrounding them, some of them facing the roof, horrified expressions clearly displayed. This seemed… familiar… but from where? From where? From-

 _There were several loud bangs, and the events unfolded right in front of her eyes as her entire body seemed to freeze up. It was like she was watching a film- a horror film- which she had been forced to participate in. A strong, unexpected force blasted through the room, knocking both Mizue and the needle away from Akane. Automatically, Akane crawled backwards and noticed that the door into the room had been completely kicked down, right off the hinges. Who or what could have done that? And just how strong were they? That was when their eyes met again; hazel into blue steel. The person who had apologised to her and wished her good night and sweet dreams. Shinya Kogami. Then her eyes flicked to the weapon in his hands- a metal baseball bat, which was presumably the thing he'd used to attack Mizue. He smiled at her before walking over to Shisui, who was groaning and clutching the side of her head, his face an iron mask, entire unreadable. Without so much as blinking, he raised the bat high above his head and brought it crashing down onto Shisui Mizue's skull, again and again and again._

That day… Shisui Mizue had shown up. And Shisui Mizue had tried to drug her. And then he had broken in and killed her. Shinya Kogami.

"Hibiki" seemed to relax, dropping the gun by Akane, and pulling her in for a hug. "You're not hurt, are you?" Akane said nothing, considering her next move. She felt the horrible blood soaking through her clothes, but it didn't belong to the either of them. "I'm sorry you had to see that. But… anyone who thinks it's okay to hurt you…" he held her tighter, "deserve to die." At those words, a fury rose inside her, one she never thought she was capable of.

She reached out a hand and picked up the gun Kogami had just dropped next to her, and kicked him away, before jumping to her feet, cocking the gun and pointing it at him.

"Akane, what are you doing?!" Kogami backed away from her, confused by her actions.

"You're not Hibiki. That's not even your name, is it?!" her hands were shaking so hard, but out of what? Anger? Fear? Confusion? Sorrow?

"No," he looked down at the floor. "I'm not Hibiki."

"You're Shinya Kogami," she hissed. "You lied to me."

"Akane, believe me, I'll explain, but please just put the gun down!" He looked up at her and her expression made him hate himself even more than he already did. Tears were rolling down that face of hers, a face that deserved nothing but happiness in life.

"Why- Why did you kill so many people?" she choked out, before screaming: "My life isn't worth any more than theirs is! People's lives are important, don't you know that?!" She glared at him. "That's it, isn't it? You don't know. You're just a cold-blooded killer. But there's one thing I don't understand – why are you working so hard, going to such psychopathic ends just to keep me alive? You killed Shisui Mizue after she tried to drug me, and you just killed twenty people – twenty people who had lives, dreams, and maybe even family, people a hell of a lot like you- so why?" She finally lowered the gun, knowing in her heart that she couldn't quite shoot him. She didn't have the answers yet. "I may not know much about my earlier memories, but I still don't understand why you keep me alive. Why you want me alive. What is it?" The gun fell out of her hand as she collapsed to her knees. "I just… don't…"

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to protect you. More than anything," he admitted. "That's why I did all that. But I'm sticking by what I said before. Those who would hurt you… aren't even human."

Before she had chance to respond, a voice boomed over the speakers. "Akane Tsunemori, seeming as you are still alive, I have some things to tell you. First of all, we have your friends hostage. I think you know who I mean." _Ginoza. Kagari. Risa. Yayoi. Masaoka._ "As well as all of the test subjects. If you don't appear before us before thirty minutes is up, we kill them all."

* * *

 **[AN: Woo, sorry about the slow update- Fanfiction was down for 24 hours so I had to wait :( I'm also on Tumblr as piresntsukino. Also, I'm dedicatin this chapter to my brown sugar wing woman, ALEEZORA.]**


	7. Meakashi-hen 7 : Jiken

**Meakashi-hen : Jiken** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Incident_

 **MARCH 12** **TH** **2025**

 _"Akane Tsunemori, seeming as you are still alive, I have some things to tell you. First of all, we have your friends hostage. I think you know who I mean. As well as all of the test subjects. If you don't appear before us before thirty minutes is up, we kill them all."_

As soon as his twisted announcement ended, Akane felt her strength vanish alongside her breath and she fell forward slightly, but Kogami was there, pulling her into him, holding her close. She was too terrified to even push him away at this point. Saying that, it wasn't like anything he'd done thus far indicated he was going to hurt her- no, far from it. He was going to hurt other people for her. "If I don't go down there… Ginoza and the others… they'll all… in thirty minutes… they'll all…" She had to save them. She had to! They didn't deserve that. They didn't deserve to … die…

"Don't worry about it," Kogami stroked her hair, trying to stop her from panicking all together. "It'll be okay. I'll definitely kill him." _Seriously, how can you talk about murder so easily?! This is someone's life!_ She wanted to yell at him, but refrained from doing so.

She shimmied out of his touch and stood up, as tall as she could; perhaps she was trying to prove a point to him- she was in control, she didn't need him to baby her. "Kogami. We have to go and save everyone."

"But if you go down there, you'll get hurt!" he protested, reaching for a gun and pulling it up with him as he stood up. "I'm coming with you!" He calmed himself before speaking again. "Akane, I'll do anything for you, you know that, right?" _Anything?_ Akane thought darkly. _If I don't keep Kogami on my side, I'll probably end up right where I started. So for now… I'll trust him._

"Then…" Akane swallowed. "Kogami. Protect me." He smiled at her words before nodding. He leaned over to her and pressed his lips to hers, using his free hand to clutch to her shirt. Akane returned the kiss, reminding herself: _Hibiki is Shinya. There's no difference between them. Shinya is Hibiki. Hibiki is Shinya. There's no difference between them. Shinya is Hibiki._ The device on her wrist beeped and Kogami broke the kiss- almost like they had sealed a deal. "It's from Mr. Ginoza!" she exclaimed. "Maybe he'll know what's going on!"

 **Akane. Rest of squad currently at stalemate. Cannot move, or hostages will be blown up. There is an official man down here- maybe in Shimotsuki's employ- as well as Akira Kitazawa, infamous terrorist [2nd floor]. Probably bombs on your route. Motion sensor or remote unknown. Possible they will send people after you. Exercise caution.**

"So, they're useless for now?" Kogami looked at the message over her shoulder. "Like you said. Let's save everyone." Then he froze, as if listening to something, before lunging at Akane, nearly pushing her down the stairs, throwing himself on top of her. "Akane!" Not a split second afterwards, the floor where they had both been stood shattered in an explosion of heat, fire and smoke as chunks of concrete slammed into the walls and ceiling, whilst little bits fell onto Kogami's back from the impact. He did nothing but shake them off, before frowning at the scene. "It's in the hallway!" he yelled, dragging Akane to her feet and pulling her after him down the stairs as the mess in the hallway was broken into pieces again. Sprinting after Kogami, Akane briefly looked back, finding it plainly unnerving how accurate he was.

With a nod, they continued sprinting down to the second floor as more blasts of bombs shook the building, but seeming as none of them were close to their current location, it was safe to proceed. Suddenly, as they proceeded on the third floor, Kogami halted in his tracks and indicated for her to do the same. He then clamped his hands over his ears and she copied him as the segment of wall not even five metres away from them was replaced with smoke and heat. The heat had barely gotten tolerable and the smoke had yet to clear before Kogami pulled Akane through it, and letting her cough at the other side. "So we're concealed. They might see us if we wait," he explained briefly, and she simply nodded. Once she had recovered, they began their sprint once more.

 _I made the right choice by trusting Kogami! This is going easier than expected! The two of us together… Togane and the bomber are no match for us!_ She rejoiced prematurely in her head, but all happy thoughts were driven away on the detonation of a bomb behind her, which made her go flying into Kogami. He helped her steady on her feet before his eyes scanned around questioningly. "What's next, Kogami?" The words were barely out of her mouth before the two were jolted from where they were stood and wound up sprawled on the floor. "He's aiming for us for sure."

"Akane, are you okay?" Kogami staggered over.

"I'm fine!" she replied quickly. "Kogami… couldn't we get onto the second floor through that gap?" she pointed at the new one that had just opened on the floor; from what she could see, the hall was empty, so they could sneak around.

"Yeah, it looks safe. I'll go down first, then you jump, and I'll catch yo-"

"I found you, Akane!" a loud haughty voice cut across her and Kogami's makeshift planning. The hole that had just opened in the wall had revealed their position to Togane, who was stood there gloating from a floor below them. "I don't know how the hell you managed to survive this long – though I guess the man clinging to you had some part in that." She glared down at him. "Honestly, if you hadn't gone and made everything worse, we wouldn't even be in this situation. You did this to everyone, Akane. You did – this is all your fault, you know." He then smiled. "Akira. Get that one." He focused on the two people again, and gauged their expressions as he grabbed a child – perhaps seven or eight years old, and without a single shred of hesitation, cocked his gun and shot the child several times in the stomach and chest. "I don't have time to wait all day for you, so I'll give you… until this little shit bleeds out. Then I'll start killing everyone else." He smiled up at Akane in mock friendliness. "His blood is on your hands."

"You… You monster!" Akane howled, prepared to leap out onto him and strangle him until he was dead _dead_ **dead** _**dead**_. The only thing preventing her from fulfilling her murderous wishes was Kogami's arms wrapped around her. Breathing heavily, she succeeded in choking out, "He needs medical attention! Someone get him help! Anyone!"

"Akane," Kogami's voice was surprisingly calm, almost unaffected by the dying child in front of them. But there was no fooling Akane. His eyes, filled with agony and suffering, belied his stoic expression. "He won't make it. I'm sorry."

She felt the strength leave her again. Another person, another precious life lost. "No… I can't let them… just die like this…" her breathing suddenly slowed and she made up her mind what she was going to do next. She turned to Kogami, her eyes pleasing. "Kogami… I'm begging you… save them… Save them, dammit!" her voice turned into a manic scream and she could hear Togane's chuckle of self-satisfaction.

Kogami finally released her slowly, deliberately, his eyes almost dead, before launching himself straight in the hall where Akira was holding everyone hostage. He lunged towards Togane, and before she saw much, an explosion behind her shoved Akane straight into the hall as well. "Get the stupid bitch!" Kitazawa screamed at the test subjects. "If you don't, I'll start killing you! You're not important anyways!"

Akane felt hands grabbing at her and she barely wrestled herself away with a shriek. Momentarily after her scream ripped from her throat, she saw a spray of bullets being fired into her pursuers, and saw Kogami had started firing at random. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her teammates propel themselves into action, and witnessed Ginoza and Risa jumping specifically around her to protect her, their weapons drawn. In a single fluid motion, Risa stunned one of the manic test subjects and kicked them to the side of the room – though cruel to look it, it was evident she didn't want the poor person to get trampled.

"Listen, Akane," she called over, sending tranquiliser rounds to the test subjects, as well as a few warning shots from a real pistol. "Don't become too reliant on Kogami when he's like this – and certainly don't count on him to always protect you, either. I know you're much stronger than that." She sent a dazzling smile at Akane as she simultaneously shot a crazed hostage. "We're trying to calm these guys down. Kogami's dealing with Togane. The rest are trying to help everyone escape. Akira Kitazawa could kill us all right now. So that means you'll have to stop him, like it or not," she held her pistol out to Akane, who hesitantly took it. She felt like she could use it. Prior experience, maybe? Who was to say? "I can tell you're bricking it. Think of your fear as excitement, or a sense that you'll soon end this madness. Cover the terror on your face with a nice happy smile."

Akane tried to smile. "Like this?"

"Like that." Risa punched another hostage. "Dammit! Akane. You can always break the device he has there first. That way, we won't blow up any time soon." She looked at Akane. "You can do it, right?"

Following Risa's instructions – you are not scared, you are excited – she stood up and nodded. "I'll try my best!"

"Good to hear it!" she smiled as Akane sped off, ignoring Ginoza's protests. 4

Weaving in and out of the people who were travelling in all directions, she targeted Kitazawa, who had his back turned to her – _excellent_. He was also looking at his device, so steadying her hands best she could, she aimed and fired, the bullet splintering his screen so it became unreadable. Another two rounds made the entire thing fall to pieces, so he could no longer use it to blow the place up. However, she had accidentally revealed where she was to him, and he had a hand grenade. _Oh, wonderful_. She raised the gun again, steeling herself against shooting the final blow and sped towards him. Before she had chance to even so much as squeeze the trigger, her face was splashed with a warm sticky substance as Akira Kitazawa's head tumbled off his neck and onto the floor, his body quickly following.

She forgot how to breathe as she stared at the decapitated man, and Kogami stood above him a bonesaw raised. Where did he get it? Where was Togane? The smile that was on Kogami's face was replaced by an expression of horror; Akane looked behind her and saw an especially insane prisoner behind her with a heavy looking pipe in his hands. Closing her eyes, she braced herself for the impact…

…that never came. There was the sound of a tranquiliser gun being fired, and loud crash behind her, indicating the man had fallen over. Behind Kogami, a trembling prisoner with red curls held the gun out in front of him. "The lady is helping us!" he managed to choke out. Seeing how blood-soaked Kogami was, he flinched and sped off to where Kagari was ushering people out.

Automatically, her eyes flitted back to Akira's remains, gradually becoming hyperaware of the substance coating her cheek and neck. As if not to spook her, Kogami approached her softly, his movements painstakingly slow as he knelt down, removed his jacket and began mopping up the blood on her skin with it, his touch almost loving, and very gentle. This definitely proved it – Shinya Kogami had no intentions of hurting her. That realisation did not stop her fear, however. "N-No…" she stammered, trembling like a newborn kitten as she shuffled away from him. "Go away…" she shook her head. "Don't come near me…"

"Akane..?" he looked at her searchingly, before the confusion in his face was replaced with complete and utter despair. He tried to move towards her again, but a prompt foot across his face prevented him.

"You. Out." Ginoza's voice was filled with authority.

"But I-"

"Out!" At his yell, Kogami stood up, cast a final look at Akane and shuffled out awkwardly. Behind his back, Ginoza made an indication to Masaoka (though Akane had no way of knowing this, it was a sign to the older man that _you need to deal with him again, sorry_ ). The bespectacled man looked down at the quivering woman, and Risa draped her jacket over her, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly.

"It's okay, here," Risa pulled Akane in for a hug, and Akane bawled like a child into her chest, accidentally smearing the blood on her face onto Risa's white shirt.

"I-I'm sorry about your shirt," Akane choked out once she'd calmed down.

"It's okay, shirts can be replaced or even better, washed," Risa petted the younger woman's hair.

Ginoza finally spoke up. "We should get her back to the house. The feds are already concerned with Banken but soon enough the damage to this lab is going to be revealed. I don't know how well we can keep this from the public, but we can damn well try." Risa gave Akane a final comforting squeeze before facing Ginoza.

"Sure. I'll help Kunizuka and Kagari with the captives," she gave him a quick salute before exiting the hall, her footsteps quietening, so the silence between the two left was almost deafening. Finally, Ginoza broke the silence.

"Akane. Can you stand?" Akane nodded at his question and took his outstretched hand and wobbled to her feet, leaning heavily against him. Slowly, they made their way outside to where Ginoza's car was, and he helped her into the passenger seat, and waited patiently as her fingers fumbled awkwardly with the seatbelt. As soon as she was buckled in, she was a blood soaked figure standing behind Ginoza.

"I…" Kogami began. "I'm coming too."

"Not right now. She's really shaken up and I don't think she wants to even look at you right now," Ginoza responded snippily. "What were you thinking? _Beheading_ a man."

"Gino, I need to protect her!" he growled, sounding more like a feral animal with each syllable.

"Please, is that what you keep telling yourself?" Ginoza's tone was cold, harsh and every word was laced with venomous fury. "It's obvious! The only thing she needs to protecting from right now is you."

"Hey… you guys…!" Kagari jogged up to them. "One of the guys over there has some info for us so Yayoi's probably taking him to her and Shion's pad." He looked at their faces – Akane's wide-eyed trauma, to Ginoza's deep-frowned fury, to Kogami's animalistic bared teeth. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. I'm taking Akane back to the house," the response was short.

Ignoring Kagari, Kogami continued. "Gino! She's my wife! I made a vow! I'm the one who's meant to protect her!"

"What..?" Akane felt her empty chest go even emptier, should that even be possible. Politely, Ginoza closed the door, yet it only muffled the conversation.

"Kogami, take some time to calm down first," Ginoza advised his friend, before going around and getting into the driver's seat. It took him under a minute to get the car moving, yet out of the rear-view mirror, she saw Kogami yelling.

"Gino!" he tried to jump for the car, but Kagari held him back.

"Ko, what the hell are you doing?! It's a moving vehicle!" Kagari yelled.

"Give her back! Give her back, dammit!" Kogami was howling. Akane looked away, staring at her shoes. After ten minutes of driving, she couldn't stand it anymore. What had Kogami meant by 'she's my wife'? Was he seriously that attached? Or before… were they…?

"Ginoza…" she fiddled with her fingers. "Am… I really Kogami's wife?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Ginoza sniffed. "He's delusional. Completely delusional."


	8. Meakashi-hen 8 : Shintaku

**Meakashi-hen : Shintaku** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Trust_

 **MARCH 12** **TH** **2025**

Once she'd gotten in, Ginoza had told her to use the bathroom to get cleaned up and calm her nerves- after all, she had been through a lot and must be shaken up. The truth was, she'd started to calm down from when she first stepped into the car. The two had fallen into comfortable silence shortly afterwards, but she could tell Ginoza didn't feel like pushing her into conversation, and to be truthful, she didn't much feel like talking. Her mind was haunted by images of a beaten Shisui Mizue, and a headless Akira Kitazawa, and a single word engulfed those two scenes: Why?

The bath wasn't nearly half as fun without Kogami – she didn't know whether to call him Shinya or Hibiki anymore. But Kogami, whoever he really was, had treated her gently, washed her back, read her Pride and Prejudice as she fell asleep, kissed her as he scooped her up in his arms. And yet, the very same Kogami had easily killed several people without so much blinking an eye lid. No, there was more to it than that. She was confident Kogami wasn't just a cold-blooded killer – after all, if he was, he wouldn't have been so pained by the death of that child. The unnecessary death of that child. No, he wasn't at all cold-blooded; he definitely had emotions when slaughtering those people. Fury. Pure, unrelenting fury. Why was he so angry?

She couldn't believe she had to ask herself that. Ultimately, she was Kogami's berserk button. The first instance, Shisui had drugged her, and therefore harmed her, and that's why he went crazy. The second instance, the soldiers had intentions of hurting her, so again, he had lost it. And Akira Kitazawa was about to lob a hand grenade at her and probably kill her alongside other people, so in some indirect, violent way, Kogami had saved as many lives as he had taken away. As she stewed in the bath, trying to push away any memories of a few nights ago, she couldn't help but wonder just what, in his Kogami's eyes, made her so important to him that he'd be willing to kill for her?

" _She's my wife! I made a vow! I'm the one who's meant to protect her!"_

His voice rang out, interrupting her thoughts. She shook her head and dunked under the water in a vain attempt to snap herself out of it. _He's delusional!_ She reminded herself, repeating it over and over again. But again, she couldn't help but thinking of the affectionate Kogami. He hadn't changed, had he?

Maybe… maybe she could give him a chance. And just maybe… she could stop him from doing such terrible things. From dirtying his hands even more than they were. Saying that, it wasn't as though she could reverse the sins he had already committed, and the odds of her 'fixing' him were slim. Maybe he was just that broken. What had happened to him? Was it something to do with Akane herself? If so, what happened to the both of them? Neither she nor Kogami were strangers, she knew that much; she also knew the two of them weren't enemies, either. Yeah. Maybe she should trust her gut instinct that was screaming at her to trust him.

The door opening snapped her out of her reverie, and for a split second she tensed, believing it to be Shinya Kogami, bringing with him conversation and laughter, but she felt the tension leave once she saw it was Risa, with her pyjamas and a towel, as well as a hot chocolate. "I just put these on the radiator to warm up," she informed Akane as she placed them on the small table. "And this is a little gift from me. There's nothing better than a hot chocolate for comfort." Akane accepted the drink gratefully, taking a sip and burning her mouth. "You dummy, it's meant to cool…" Risa laughed. Her little jibe hadn't meant any offence, so none was taken. "I'll leave you to it, then!" she waved as she departed the room. With a sigh, Akane reclined, taking sips of her hot chocolate once it had cooled down enough for her to consume without it stinging.

Once she'd done she clambered less than gracefully out the bath, quickly towelled off and into her pyjamas. She couldn't help but think of Kogami reading to her as she drifted off into sleep. She didn't feel like sleeping, though her body ached with tiredness – her mind was far too awake for sleep just yet.

She shuffled slowly down the hallway and saw that light was spilling from an ajar door. Politely knocking on the door, she peered inside to see Ginoza sat at the desk, typing away on his laptop, frowning every so often. Upon hearing and seeing her, he paused and looked up. "Tsunemori."

"I… um, can't sleep," she tried her best to smile. "Not after everything that happened today, really. Would it be okay if we just talked for a bit?"

Silently, he nodded, and indicated to the seat opposite him with his head. "I'll go and get us some tea ready." He stood up hastily and hurried to the corner of the room as she sat on the seat, peering at his desk. She was only snapped out of it when something wet trailed up her hand, and she squeaked in surprise – looking down, sat on the floor, looking expectantly up at her was a dog. She had no idea Mr. Ginoza owned a dog! Tentatively, she raised a hand and began to pet him, giggling as he rolled over onto his stomach so she had to stoop down to stroke him. "That's Dime." Ginoza placed the tray of tea on the desk before crouching next to Dime, who rolled onto his front and half-leapt to his master, almost grateful for the attention. Akane couldn't help but laughing as Ginoza petted the animal, who licked his face – Ginoza hadn't looked this relaxed in the short time she'd known him. Clearing his throat, he straightened up and walked back around to his chair, wiping the dog slobber on his cheek with his sleeve. Dime trailed after him and placed his head on Ginoza's knee. With a mock sigh, Ginoza began to absent-mindedly stroke his pet. It seemed like Kogami wasn't the only one with a hidden side to them. "Kogami tells me you like books."

"Guilty," she replied.

"Pride and Prejudice is your favourite, so I'm told," Ginoza chipped in. "You relate to Elizabeth, right?"

"You got me," she agreed. "What's your favourite book, Mr. Ginoza?"

"Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev," he shrugged it off. "I like works by Leo Tolstoy as well."

"I can't say I've read it," Akane admitted. "I'll be sure to try it out though. I might be able to order a copy online…"

"I have a copy- you can borrow it, if you'd like," he offered. "I have to admit, it isn't in great condition. I've read it far too many times."

"It's alright," Akane waved him down. "You can always trust a dog-eared book, if you'll excuse the pun." (He'd rolled his eyes melodramatically at that as his dog whined). "It means the story inside is so good that many people have read it many times."

"Sound advice," he commented. "Please, drop the Mister. Ginoza is fine."

"Only if you stop calling me Tsunemori," Akane challenged him, not expecting him to take her up on it – he struck her as the type to adhere strictly to rules.

"Alright, fine," he assented. He took a long drink of his tea, trying to find something to say. He didn't have to. Akane did have something in mind she wanted to talk about.

"Say, Ginoza?"

"What is it?" the cup clinked loudly as he put it down again, and he inwardly cursed his heavy-handedness.

"Why does…" she sighed. "Why does Kogami act the way he does?"

"A question I don't even know myself," he replied. He sounded… sad. And maybe a little bit lonely. "Maybe you're better off asking him yourself, but that won't yield a whole lot of answers. In my opinion, he's too far gone to save, but who knows. You two are full of surprises." He pushed the bridge of his glasses up with his nose. "Yet, I am a detective, which most of the time entails guesswork, so I can hazard a guess. He loves you, believe it or not."

"I thought that much. Yet I don't understand why."

"People are fools when they're in love. Personally, I can't understand him because I've never loved anyone in that way before," he explained. "But from what I have read in fictitious relationships, he probably places you above the world and his life in terms of value."

"Well then, what should I do?"

"I don't understand why you're asking me, I'm hardly an expert on love," he smiled gently, a strange but endearing expression to have on his face. "But I do know that you are in no way obliged to return his feelings. You are entitled to, however. It is all your decision. And if you don't, then if he truly loves you, he'll learn to accept it."

"Should I go and talk to him, do you think?"

"It's your call," he waved with his hand. "If you think it will help your relationship, then of course, by all means."

Akane drained her tea cup. "Thanks, Ginoza. You've helped me sort some things out in here." She tapped the side of her skull.

"You're welcome. I'll try and help best I can. If you're looking for Kogami, try searching for the gym. If he's not there, you'll have to do a manual search, I'm afraid."

The man in question had departed from the gym a while ago. He'd have to pay for a replacement training drone, since he'd beaten the one currently stationed there into a conglomeration of metal and wires. He'd sent a message to Shion about it, who simply replied with: **UGH. SHINYA. WHY.**

After that, he'd quickly showered, trying not to think of how terrified Akane had looked when he'd tried to help her clean that blood of her face. How terrified she'd been of him. Moodily, he'd grabbed Swann's Way and stomped to the lounge, where he'd found a fire roaring – the empty whiskey bottle explained that Masaoka was the one who'd put it up, and was probably very drunk right now. How the old bastard's liver did it, he'd never know.

Originally, he was going to sit on the sofa, but for some reason, memories coaxed him towards the fire. The last time he and Akane had been in this house had been the happiest night of his life, and anything that happened after that night couldn't ruin it. He wouldn't let that night be tainted. In the end, he'd just isolated it in his head. Something about those flames seemed nostalgic to him, and he supposed they lead him to his happy place – back to a time where Akane didn't hate him, to a time where she didn't look at him in fear and scream at him to go away.

 _They'd laid on the floor, clasping each other hands until their knuckles were white, not caring that they were both stark naked. Why should they be? They were alone in the house, and it wasn't like they would get cold, either. They'd lit the fire for that. Both of them were still panting slightly, and the silence between them was content and comfortable. Finally, Akane was the one to break it. "Shinya, I'm really happy."_

" _I'm happy too," he replied and leaned over to kiss her forehead. After that, she'd curled into his chest, which made a slight glow appear in his heart._

" _Love…" she smoothed a palm over his chest. "Have you ever thought about having children?"_

 _It would be a lie to say he wasn't surprised by the sudden topic, but he went with it. Since his father left him when he was a child, he'd sworn to himself that one day, he'd have a family and do the job his own dad never could. "Well, I feel that we could both take on the responsibility of parents, but I won't force anything on you unless you're ready. You call the shots around here, after all." She'd laughed at that, but quietened down quickly, as if mulling something over._

" _Well, uh…" she swallowed, a habit she was prone to doing whenever she was nervous. "I went to go to Shion the other day, and well, this might be a little sudden, but…" she looked at him with a small smile, a slightly unsure one at that. "I'm pregnant."_

 _He's felt his body stiffen in a very joyous surprise, and then he buried his head in her hair. "Wow," he muttered simply. "I can't… Akane, that's wonderful." He laid kisses all over her face, before capturing her lips in his. "You never cease to amaze me."_

 _With a somewhat relieved giggle, she stroked his face. "I'm glad you accept us both."_

" _Hey, don't ever think I won't accept you, Akane," he ruffled her hair, an action he was wont to do when he was comforting her. "You and our child are now the centre of my life and world and I would never leave you. Remember, I made a vow."_

" _I remember like it was just yesterday," she poked his cheek affectionately. "I love you, you know. You and all your stubbornness. I love you so much."_

" _And I love you, my queen, everything about you. Your bravery, determination, grace, and occasional clumsiness," he glanced down at her and she raised a hand to flick his forehead. "Ow!" He pretended to be hurt and rubbed his forehead. After a while, he spoke again. "Hey, Akane?"_

" _Mm?" she muttered sleepily._

" _Can I put my hand on your stomach?" he asked._

" _Silly, the baby hasn't even grown to a fetus yet – they're smaller than a pea!" she giggled, but sighed contentedly. "But yeah, sure."_

 _He absent-mindedly stroked her bare stomach, flat as it was, and muttered, half to the baby that was growing there, and half to himself. "I can't wait until you're born."_

Two quiet knocks on the door dragged him out of his pleasant daydream, and he looked over to the door, expecting Risa with a drink, or maybe a drunken Masaoka, but certainly not Akane. She looked slightly awkward stood there.

"Hey," he called over, softly, and even he had to admit, the atmosphere was considerably more awkward than anticipated. He felt like he'd been warped back to high school and was trying to ask his crush out. "Uh… how are you feeling?"

"Better," she shifted uncomfortably.

"Would you like to sit here? It's comfier and warmer, I promise," he indicated next to him on the floor in front of the fire, only half expecting her to sit next to him, but she trailed over and sat down, keeping a short distance between them.

"Sorry about snapping at you before," she looked down at her hands. "It was kind of rude of me, I suppose."

"Why are you apologizing? I should be the one saying sorry," he clenched his fists. "I knew you were in a fragile state of mind, and yet I still went overboard and made a mess. I horrified you. I did terrible things." His knuckles went white. "I'm not asking you to forgive me – I know at this point I'm unforgivable. But all I wanted to do was… was…"

"Protect me?" Akane finished for him. "I know." They fell into a short silence after that. "Listen, Kogami. I know my memories haven't come back, but I do know that you and I knew each other before this. I don't know what we were to each other." She looked at him. "It doesn't take much thought to see that I'm important to you, though."

"Akane…"

"Maybe we can start over again, I don't know," she looked at the fire and sighed. "I promise you. I'll remember those days, even though you and I don't know each other anymore. I suppose it'll be my way of saying thank you."

"I'd like that. Very much," he turned to face her. "I'd get to see you again."

Without putting much thought into it, she surged up and kissed him, and it didn't take long for him to respond to her touch either. His lips were supple, his touch tender as he stroked her hair gently, soothingly. He licked her lips – a probing, wet glide – then touched her tongue with his. From that single contact, electric sensations zipped from the tip of her tongue down to her toes and back again, all in an instant. She felt like she was drowning in him – who knew such a happy feeling even existed? She opened her mouth and pulled him tighter, almost climbing into his arms. They kissed wildly, for what seemed like a year, for what is only a millisecond. Her breath was ragged as she pulled away, and it felt like no matter what she did, she couldn't sip enough air back into her lungs.

She didn't know a lot at that moment, but it would eventually change. She'd get her memories back, and she'd get stronger. But for now, she was just really, really happy.

She'd finally come back home.


	9. Meakashi-hen 9 : Kakushigoto

**Meakashi-hen : Kakushigoto** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Secret_

 **MARCH 13 2025**

"Explain yourself at once." Mika's voice was hard, as it was wont to do when she was considerably angered, or trying to supress any emotion of some kind. It gave her the sense (or was it an illusion?) that she was in control.

"What is there to explain?" Togane glowered over at her. "Thanks to our dearest Akane, we've lost several people who were willing to work with us – which, can I remind you, is incredibly rare. It's all because they idolize my mother-"

"I don't give a crap about your mother right now!" she snapped, before settling back into her chair. "We've lost the entire facility at Banken, I hope you realise that?! If I didn't have a hard copy of the notes about our progress there, we'd be back at square one – I bet you didn't think about that, did you? If we didn't have these notes, then yes, your mother would have lost the election and we would have failed." She narrowed her eyes. "Or rather, you would have failed."

"What, not accepting any responsibility, are you?"

"The incident at Banken was hardly my fault, Togane," she sniffed. "So no, I am not accepting any responsibility."

"I don't know why I thought you would. You never do," he countered.

"Oh, please, I should just dismiss you right now and be done with this," she crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest.

"Do that, and I'll expose you," he threatened, grinning from ear to ear. "Now that is a thing I'd like to see you refuse responsibility for. Claim that it isn't your fault."

"Well, I may as well kill you. I can't work with someone who is ultimate going to turn against me. I need you gone, if that's what you're going to do." She felt her hand itching towards the pistol stored underneath her desk. She didn't feel like killing him – he was always replaceable, as sick as that sounded – but if needs be, then yes. She needed him gone. He wasn't the only one with his quest to make somebody proud of them.

"Take it easy, Shimotsuki. I'm just saying that we both have something to lose with this project," he shrugged, trying to pass off his sudden fear. It was evident at this point Shimotsuki was unstable and determined and desperate enough to shoot a bullet through his skull, though she didn't look the type to an unobservant eye. She seemed far too prim and proper, too obsessed with rules to do something so outlandish.

She relaxed, if only slightly, still glaring at him from the other side of her desk. "Well, we certainly are lucky, aren't we? If Naosu Company's president hadn't given me that tip about creating a hard copy in a separate location, we would be in ruins. Thanks to you getting far too overexcited and jeopardising this entire operation!" She sighed. "We've set Kamui up at a different location. I thought Banken was secure enough, but apparently not. And, just so you know, I'm not making any report of any kind – whether it be on my laptop or in a hard copy, about the operations resuming." She put a hand to her forehead and smoothed the skin with her fingers. "For the love of god, tell me that she hasn't got her hands on those stupid files!"

"No. I saw them coming in so I replaced the ones in the drawer with blanks. Literally empty pages of official sounding gibberish," Togane smirked at his small victory. "I gave the real files to Kamui. You know Target Juliet is his favourite."

"Only because the drugs she received have been the most successful thus far," Mika sighed. "Our only problem is the coma it induced. If we get over that obstacle, then it should be fine for distribution, right?"

"That's correct," he responded flatly. "But you know that forming drugs takes time… we've made lots of progress."

"Yes… but _not enough_ ," she hissed through clenched teeth. "It's taking too long, even without setbacks." She unfolded her arms and drummed her fingers listlessly on the wood of the table. "We've lost all of our test subjects, and their silence isn't guaranteed. Additionally, we've lost our… _voluntary_ workforce."

"Technically, Akane has more of an advantage than us right now," Togane pointed out. "That must really piss you off, right?"

"She has enough Perfect World in her system that if we just managed to bring her in, she could stop being a threat," Mika leant back and looked at the ceiling. "Hell, she could even help us. I'd like to see Target Delta try anything then. Even his team can't do anything – if they hurt her, he'd slaughter them all." She sighed quietly as an idea formed in her brain. "Well, Togane, consider that your way of repenting for your failures. Bring her in, and I'll be willing to overlook Banken."

Both of them shared a very similar fault – they both didn't question the loyalty of Kirito Kamui, the man who was manufacturing their drugs. They assumed his 'slow' progress had been natural. Of course, he did have every intention of getting the drug completed, but he had other side projects based at an equally as corrupted company, with another unethical project. It was his aim the entire time, not to help the companies involved, but show society that it needed to evolve. That the world as it was, was far too dark and corrupted, and no good could come of it. By making these drugs, people would begin to reflect on their actions. And then, society would change.

Of course, his employers could never know that. So each day, he spun a web of lies that got more and more delicate with each untruth. Someday soon, it would surely snap. And that day was approaching much faster than he could have predicted.

* * *

Akane found herself curled up on the sofa the next morning with a blanket draped delicately over her shoulders, the fire long since out. Stretching as she sat up, she looked around, expecting Kogami to be close by, as he usually was clinging to her like an overly-attached puppy, which could be seen as endearing. For some reason, he was oddly vacant, so she shrugged; he did have other matters to attend to that didn't involve her, just as she had without him as well. When she swung her legs out, she stubbed her toe on something; when she looked down, she saw it was a book. Picking it up and inspecting the cover told her that it was _Swann's Way_ , and out the top was a bookmark. Of course, Kogami would be the type to use bookmarks rather than fold a page over like she did.

The page she turned it to was mostly clean, the pages pristine, except for a faint pencil line under a few short sentences. She chuckled slightly; he wouldn't fold a corner over, but drawing on the pages was perfectly okay. Knowing that small detail made him more human to her. She read the underlined passage: _…you're such an exceptional person. That's what I liked about you from the start; I felt that you weren't like everybody else._

Quickly, she closed the book and placed it back on the floor. Maybe the passage was a coincidence; or maybe it wasn't. Who was to say?

She assumed they'd all be in the kitchen, judging from the time – it would be breakfast time, and for now, Kagari, Risa and Masaoka had become the chefs of the household, and she had yet to sample Kogami's cooking, and was beginning to suspect it was all talk to impress her. _How adorable_. She kept trying to remind herself about the dark side of him she'd witnessed several times over in the passing days. But on that note, he really didn't mean her any harm.

The instant she walked out the door, she found herself slamming nose first into somebody else who was a little taller than her. Said person cried in an exclamation of surprise and stumbled backwards and crashed into a side table with a rather expensive looking ornament propped on it, sending it tumbling to the floor. Rubbing her sore nose, Akane looked up to see who she had smacked into and accidentally caused to smash something, and started in surprise. Ashamedly stood in front of her was the red curly haired man (though by the way he held himself made him look more like a child than an adult) who had shot the crazed patient. "Oh! It's you!" the words flew out her involuntarily and he shifted awkwardly. "I mean, uh, we've met before. Do you remember me? From Banken."

"Y-Yes…" he shook his head hurriedly, his curls bouncing. "I-I-I hope you're… o-okay," he began chewing on the sleeve of his hoodie, and judging from the state of it this was a habit.

"I'm fine, thanks to you!" she smiled warmly and stuck her hand out. "Thank you for that."

"N-No, don't mention it," he held out his own hand nervously. "You-You were trying to- trying to help us, so…" she shook his hand.

"I'm Akane. Akane Tsunemori," she introduced herself.

"Meaning bri-bright red? Like my hair," he pointed a trembling fingers at his messy locks, trying to make a joke, which she politely laughed at. "I-I-I'm Sho. Hinakawa." He stammered, getting more and more flustered. "Uh! Uh… can I call you big sister?"

 _That's adorable!_ "Of course you can. I get the feeling you'll be working with us, right?"

"Mm!" he agreed fervently. "Shii-chan and Yaa-chan said I could he-help so-so-so I said I wo-would!" He looked around. "I-I'm sorry about the…" He struggled to find a word for it; even Akane herself couldn't name it. "Thingie." He settled on sheepishly.

"It was probably expensive," Akane shrugged. "But I don't think they're going to miss this… thingie."

Sho giggled, glad he wasn't in trouble, but then fell silent, before admitting, "U-Um! I'm lost."

"This place is ridiculously big, but lots of people do live here. Are you looking for the team?"

"Y-Yes!"

"Right this way then, Sho," she winked at him before adding, "I get lost too, and it's not just you." They made their way slowly down to the kitchen, Sho glancing here and there as if not believing where he was, amazed by the decorations that had been placed in the halls. Akane had the suspicions that the décor was mostly due to Ginoza and not Kogami. "Hey, Sho, why did those guys pick you anyway?"

"Well- Well, I…" his tongue stumbled over the words as they fell from his mouth. "I… used to be a… no-not nice person. I used to ma-make drugs – but somebody made me!" he began chewing on his hoodie again. "And I don't have anyone left. I… My… family is all go-gone, and I… didn't have man-many friends. And some-some person said they had a j-job for me, paid job, said it wasn't illegal and they'd make sure I didn't go to prison, I took it because I didn't want to go to prison because they scare me and I helped them with this new drug, they said it was legal and they-"

"Calm down, Sho," Akane called over gently. "I don't think you're a bad person."

"Oh! You… don't?" the sleeve, now wet with saliva, fell from Sho's mouth. "Well- I helped them with this really complex d-d-drug and things… it made other people do bad things if someone else told them to, and when I di-didn't want to do it anymore they made me take it and it was bad, bad, bad, bad, bad!"

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Akane told him soothingly.

"Th-Thanks, big sister…" there was a pause. "There's a drug that counteracts some of the effects it has."

"R-Really?" Akane spun around – this could be a chance for her! Maybe it could clear some of her amnesia. It was worth a shot, wasn't it?

"Yeah. It can't actually stop the drug though, so it isn't really a cure. Only… only the side-ef-effects."

"I see."

"Yaa-chan and Shii-chan said they would talk it over with you whe-whether you would be a-able to-"

"-Take the drug," a voice behind them sounded out, interrupting Sho, who jumped out of his skin a second time. Akane spun around to see Kogami stood there, his hair slightly damp. He also seemed to be slightly out of breath and agitated, like he'd been running. Had he panicked when he hadn't seen her still sleeping on the couch? "We were just discussing it," he ran a hand through his hair, trying to play off his breathlessness. "Shion's already making preparations for it, Akane. That's only if you'll do it. She says it's safe for you to take, and I'll be with you the entire time, I promise."

"I believe you," she smiled as warmly as she could up at him, trying to relax him. "If Shion says it's safe, then it's safe!"

"Well, shall we go then, my lady?" he held out a hand, and she took it in her own, and blushed as he skimmed his lips across her knuckles, before leading her away.

"You too, Sho!" she cried out the hapless looking man, who trailed after them in quick hurried steps to Shion's lab.

Sho had been more acquainted to the promiscuous woman, since he had been bunking on her couch for the last few days, helping her understand the drug a little better, and feeling ashamed that he still didn't know enough to give Shii-chan and Yaa-chan an advantage over the people who manufactured the drug. In fact, the only person who knew about the drug properly was his boss, who he never was told the name of. How useless he truly was! It made him want to cry a little bit – he couldn't help these nice people who were being so lovely and kind to him. And Akane, who really had drawn the short straw and was being so optimistic and upbeat. It was at that point he began to admire her, really, as she sat down on Shion's couch, trying to ignore the older woman obviously rubbing her breasts in her face or the scary look of the man who he'd seen kiss Akane's hand, and still smiling, swallowed the pills.

The scary looking man who had treated Akane so gently edged subtly up to him and Shii-chan fussed around with his big sister. And it was in that moment that Sho learned the definition of true fear when the icy blue eyes flashed coldly and dangerously down at him and the man leaned over to whisper a short sentence in Sho's covered ears, so the women didn't overhear.

"If something happens to Akane, I won't hesitate to snap your neck."


	10. Meakashi-hen 10 : Hakanai

**Meakashi-hen : Hakanai** / _Eye Opening Chapter : Ephemeral_

 **16** **TH** **SEPTEMBER 2024**

Right. She'd known them before – everyone except Kagari and Sho, that was. And for some reason, whenever she tried to summon memories of Kogami, it was like there was a thick fog over them. Almost like they weren't even there; yet they had to be, right? Right?!

She remembered it all so clearly – her grandfather had died a month previous, and she'd stepped into the role of company president, as was in his will for her to do so. She'd immediately asked that her cousin, Mika, be her vice-president. However, an incident regarding a reported attack on one of the main facilities had pushed them into hiring private investigators and body guards – hence Ginoza, Masaoka, Risa and Yayoi had been introduced. She'd met Shion later when she spent time with Yayoi, and she was definitely enthralled by the woman's zany behaviour, but also her genuine compassion. Ginoza was Mika's bodyguard, but the two detested each other with a burning passion. However, they maturely decided to put aside their differences and tolerate one another for the time being. Though Akane would never tell Mika, she had been privy to several conversations (most of them involving Risa) which comprised mainly of complaining about Iryo's vice president.

She remembered her attack very clearly too, and it sickened her.

It started out innocently enough – yet another social gathering with her family, discussing the business' successes. It felt a little lonely and she was sure it wasn't just the loss of her grandfather, either. Something else… The dress she was wearing was one of her old favourites – a pale pink dress that swung just above her knees, with lace sleeves to her elbows. It felt a little tight around the middle; she had no idea why, since she was usually very fit, attending the gym almost as frequently as – as who?

"So I happened to hear we've increased considerably in profits since last month, Akane," her great-aunt called over. "If you don't mind me saying, I never believed you'd do so well, dear."

"It's no problem, I'm glad to have impressed you," Akane forced a fake smile on her cheeks; truth was, most of the elder generation annoyed her with their so-called knowhow – none of it had helped her at all when she was just learning the ropes. "We're just about ready to launch our latest project. If it is as good as I'm told it is, then we should increase our profit margins even more."

"Oh, is this the stimulants?" Mika chided in, the sarcasm evident to hear. "The one that's supposed to cure society's big killer, serenity?"

"Yes, it is," Akane responded with equal ice. "I'll have you know that it's a medical breakthrough, Mika. We could save thousands of lives across the globe."

"What Akane says is true, dear," Aoi Tsunemori piped up.

"We're wasting time on that project!" she slammed a fist on the table, rattling the cutlery and crockery. "I keep telling you, we have to focus on _Perfect World_! It would reduce the crime rates, I tell you now – everyone will be grateful for us!" She turned to Akane. "It's because of you that we're not fulfilling everything that we could be!"

"Mika!" Akane's mother and Mika's aunt hissed across the table. "We've warned you against pursuing that!"

"Think about it! We could completely eradicate crime as it stands, and therefore create a better society!" Mika snapped, before turning her nose up. "Besides, 90% of the serenity cases are from people overusing and abusing drugs. We wouldn't even need a cure for serenity if there was nobody of the disposition to even do the drugs in the first place."

"Mika, that's enough!" Akane's mother wiped her face with her napkin – she was giving herself time to calm down, as she did when someone had angered her. "Those actions are completely unauthorised and downright morally wrong. Now, I don't want to hear any more of that talk from you, understand?"

"But I-"

" _Understand_?"

"Yes, Auntie," Mika admitted defeat, before sitting up again. "But if they were authorised-"

"By who, the head of the company?" her aunt scoffed.

"I'm sorry, Mika, but I couldn't possibly let that continue. I'm glad for the research you've put into it, but there's no way I could say it was okay. Sorry," Akane chipped in.

The rest of the meal was spent in stony silence as Mika glared at anything and anybody in the room, and everyone else trying to ignore this behaviour. Akane supposed she hadn't matured as much as she previously thought.

At ten o'clock, the congregation officially separated, and Akane dismissed herself as well, wishing her various family members good night, and promising her grandmother that she would visit this weekend for sure. Her grandma tweaked her nose fondly. Akane noted with a little bit of joy that she merely shook Mika's hand.

When she emerged, she was met with Risa, who began to explain her presence. "He got a call from work and had to rush in – ace detective he is and all," her tone was dripping with sarcasm as she gingerly took the younger woman's arm. "So he sent me. I hope I'm adequate, President Tsunemori."

"Risa, come on," Akane sighed melodramatically. "Am I really acting like that?"

"Of course not, dummy," Risa flicked her forehead. "I'm only teasing you."

"Akane." A familiar, disgruntled voice echoed down the foyer. Akane turned her head to affirm her suspicions – Mika was stood there, arms folded, a scowl on her face. Gently, she detached herself from Risa and looked at her friend.

"Risa, could you wait outside by the car? I'll catch up to you. I think my cousin wants to speak to me," she smiled at her friend, who looked perplexed – almost like she could sense the tension in the air like a bomb slowly ticking down to detonation. Akane was trying to look past it and brighten the mood, which she could tell was failing.

"My wish is your command, master," Risa stalked off with a little wave, her tone extremely droll.

Once she was out of earshot, Akane faced her cousin. "What is it, Mika?"

"I will make _Perfect World_ happen. Know that," she sounded so stubborn, refusing to see sense.

"You heard mom, didn't you? The tests you proposed are completely unauthorised, and I refuse to condone them – they're just wrong, why won't you accept that? Besides, it won't help anybody like that."

"How would you know? I don't have any time for you. I'll do it, with or without your authorisation, _President Tsunemori_ ," her sarcasm, unlike Risa's, was entirely malicious, dealt with more venom than a snake bite. What a nasty thing she could be.

"Enough, Mika," Akane warned her, patience running thin. "You're the one who will ruin this company if you continue with this! I'll let it slide for now. But please, don't mention it again."

With that, it was her turn to stalk out as she felt the anger boiling in her veins.

The journey home was an hour long, the duration of which she spent chatting aimlessly with Risa about anything and everything, which really helped her unwind. Risa and Akane had been friends for a while, and it felt like they were back at her house on Saturday evenings, just shooting the breeze, accompanied by all kinds of alcohol (normally hand-picked by Risa herself). She waved a cheerful goodbye to the good-natured Risa as she staggered inside and to the kitchen, feeling strangely thirsty. She pulled a bottle of peach juice out the fridge ( _why the hell were there twenty bottles of it?!_ ) and drank it steadily as she sat down at the table. There was a little note there on old-fashioned paper.

 _I'm busy today, but I'll make it up tomorrow. And as for your question before, how about Hibiki? [Or Airi. You liked that one, so I like it as well._

Her cheeks tugged up in a smile at the note, despite the fact the present her was confused about it's contents – were Hibiki and Airi friends of theirs, maybe? She placed the note back on the table and headed up to her bedroom before crashing on the bed, preparing to go to sleep. How the night had tired her out completely.

Her respite was shattered by two annoyingly high-pitched beeps, and barely concealing a groan she reached for her cellphone, which was in her bag. There was a single message from an unknown number – _seems familiar_ , her present-self thought – which simply read: _She wasn't lying, you know._

She replied back, confused as to how the messenger would know about her private conversations. _You mean Mika? Who are you?_

 _Oh, nobody important. Just someone who wants her little secret uncovered. And of course it was your dear cousin I was on about._

 _Is she doing something?_

 _Yes._

 _Are you going to tell me?_

 _No. You're going to find out yourself._

 _And how would I do that?_

 _Banken, tomorrow. You may want to see your cousin - she spends a decent amount of time there. She'll be there between 6am and 9am. Trust me._

As much as she distrusted the mysterious messenger, she distrusted Mika more – her tone, her declaration, her behaviour at dinner all pointed to her need to get the project approved. It was evident she disliked doing unauthorised things, and perhaps she was sneaking around and doing something she'd later regret. Akane had to stop her cousin from ruining her career, relationships, maybe even her life.

The next morning, she wasted absolutely no time marching to Banken – oddly enough, the rest of the night was a complete and utter blur, with her only being able to pull a few words out of conversations and maybe a few shaky seconds of images but that was all.

All she could remember was her marching into Banken, feeling the blood rushing through her veins and the anger swelling in her heart and threatening to explode. A Banken worker stepped in front of her. "Uh… ma'am, you can't walk in here. Health and safety and all that," he stammered nervously as Akane glowered up at him.

"Like hell it's health and safety," she growled. "Where is Mika Shimotsuki?!"

"Her… her office, ma'am," the worker assented.

"Take me to her! Now!" she snapped and followed the worker who seemed somewhat defeated as they headed up to the office. He knocked on the door and it was opened by Mika who did a double take upon seeing her cousin, but settled. "Hello, Mika." The worker quickly sloped off, sensing the incoming cat fight as Akane slammed the door behind her.

"Cousin! How nice it is to see you!" Mika tried to keep the tone light, as she hadn't been caught red-handed. "Is there a problem?"

"Is there a problem?! Yes, there is a problem!" She managed to corner Mika into a corner and glared down at her. "You are putting people's lives in danger! Ending them! What the hell are you running here?!"

"I told you I would make it happen," Mika responded icily. "You've read the files, haven't you?"

"This is unethical and you know it!" Akane retorted. "Not only that it will place scrutiny on our company, and if this gets made public, we will shut down. But I'd be willing for that to happen if I could save these people… Have you thought about the lives you're using here?!"

"Oh, believe me, I was careful. Nobody will miss these guys," she turned away, avoiding eye contact. Akane finally stepped back, giving Mika breathing space.

"Mika, you can't do this…" she placed a hand over her face, not able to even stare at the woman.

"They're from the criminal underworld. It's not like they had any rights we need to be concerned about," she moved over to her desk, leaning on it, her hands crossed across her chest.

"No… Mika… you're a sociopath," she removed the hand from her face.

"Actually, I'm not. This is to benefit these people, you understand? It will help them!"

"I don't have to understand this. People's lives aren't expendable!" She was getting worked up; she had to calm down, or nobody would take her seriously.

"There has to be sacrifices if you want to get anywhere. So, Akane, is there nothing I can say to change your mind?"

"No." Akane set her mouth in a firm line. "I'll make sure our shareholders know about it. I won't tell your aunt and uncle, because I believe you should explain your actions to them."

"Why? Why did you go and have to make the wrong choice? Why are you so selfish?!" Mika's voice pitched, sounding near hysterical, and Akane was slightly taken aback by this sudden switch in personality. "Then I'll save you too! I'll stop you making the wrong choices!"

"Well, director?" a voice behind Akane distracted her. She spun around to see Sakuya Togane stood above her, grinning from ear to ear. Looking back to Mika, Akane saw that she simply nodded. With that, she felt his hands grabbing at her.

"What are you doing?!" she struggled, trying to claw at him. "Get away!"

Something was shoved under her nose, and the world turned black.

However, the affair didn't quite end with her unconsciousness.

"Oh my god…" Mika sighed shakily. "What has to be done, has to be done," she looked sadly at Akane's comatose body. "I'll save you, cousin."

"I'll deal with her husband. He shouldn't prove a problem," Togane smiled at her.

"Right. She's Target Juliet. Take her to Kamui."

"Leave Delta to me, Director."

 **15** **TH** **SEPTEMBER 2025**

"She's still alive," Mika faked sobbed to her beloved auntie and uncle. "The surgeons got to her in time..." She mock wiped her eyes. "To… Togane thinks it was the husband. Right from the very start, all he's wanted is money!"

Her uncle gritted his teeth, and choked out, "I never should've let him near Akane. Oh, I've done this all to my own daughter. My only daughter."

"Uncle, you're not to blame. We all should've shunned him before he corrupted my dear cousin…" Mika feigned stress, grief and betrayal – she was very skilled at hiding things recently.

"Dear. She's still alive. When she wakes up, we can start again. We need to go to the hospital now. She needs us right now," Akane's mother rubbed her husband's back soothingly, despite being close to tears herself.

"You're right. Mika get all the security and my most expensive PIs. I want all evidence against him. Triple the security, I don't want him anywhere near my daughter ever again," her uncle stared at her, acting as if he was in charge. _Hah!_

"As you wish, Uncle," Mika nodded before speeding away, barely hiding the smile twitching on her lips.

Over at the hospital, she'd bidden Togane to watch Juliet until she gave him the all-clear, so he was moderately surprised when the person who walked in the room wasn't a Tsunemori at all, but rather, Shinya Kogami; immediately, his guard was up. After all, this man was dangerous, according to everyone else. However, Kogami just ignored him and stared down at Akane, his face in a mask of horror and utter loss. "What… What the hell happened?" he muttered weakly. Togane nearly burst out laughing; for such a tough, near terrifying man, this kind of hopelessness was unprecedented. He would have felt guilty, if this had not been for his mother. As far as Togane was concerned, it was just a blip on the road to pleasing his mother.

"You have to leave. After all, you're the reason she had to be saved."

Kogami tensed. "What the hell does that mean?!"

"You brought her down. Ruined her. This is your fault," he continued, enjoying the pure emotion playing across Kogami's face. "By now Shimotsuki's already laid the blame on you, so it really would be in your best interest to leave."

"I'm staying here and explaining. I'll stop you and Shimotsuki," he growled. "If there's one thing she hated more than betrayal, it was injustice."

He was distracted by the click of a gun, and he turned to Togane, preparing to get shot. When he saw that he wasn't the target, his muscles froze. The barrel was directed at Akane's skull, and Togane calmly began to speak again. "There's footage of you coming in here. If she gets shot, and the evidence is already against you, then you'll be blamed. Now, you don't want her to die, do you?"

"You monster…" Kogami growled. "One of these days, I'll kill you."

"Yes, but today won't be that day," Togane responded.

"This isn't over, you know," Kogami took a final look at Akane – trying to memorize her face, just everything about her. "I'll come back her. You can count on that."

Togane waited until he was by the door before calling over, "Do that, and I'll just kill you all.

 **MEAKASHI-HEN : END**

* * *

 **[AN: So, it's been a while? Ish? I've been super busy, I'm really sorry, and I've had writer's block, which is a bitch to deal with. Anyways, please review, since it pushed me to get this final bit done!]**


	11. Utsutsukowashi-hen 1 : Kiki

**Utsutsukowashi-hen : Kiki** / _Reality Breaking Chapter : Crisis_

 **MARCH 20TH 2025**

The past week and a bit had all conglomerated into a confused blur inside Shinya Kogami's head. None of the memories seemed to connect following Akane's partially returned memories (Why the hell didn't she remember him? Was life purposely screwing with him?) but all he did remember was the ever increasing send of dread and the sense that something just wasn't right; an emotion that had now subsided once Akane was safe, and he could finally relax. She was safe from Mika, from Togane, and especially, _safe from Ginoza_. Just thinking about his estranged best friend was enough to make his blood boil. But Ginoza wasn't here, so there was no use getting angry just yet.

All he really wanted was Akane to really come back; she was nearly here, that much he knew. But things just keep getting in the way. Bespectacled, green eyed, Ginoza-shaped things. He clenched his fists in frustration and tamped his anger down - whatever. As long as Ginoza apologised for what he had done, and had been trying to do, Kogami would forgive him. But since he adamantly refused, Kogami had been extremely pissed off. So it was best to get Akane out of that situation.

It was fine, everything was fine and would work out. He wasn't so sure of this, but maybe if he told himself enough it would become a reality. He stood up and stretched, easing the tension out of his muscles; he'd fallen asleep in a really awkward position to accommodate the person next to him, who was undisturbed by the movement next to her. Softly, he padded over to the mirror and examined his back, and the scratches all the way across it- though they looked red and raw, they didn't hurt much at all. He smiled down at the woman who'd put them there, who was sleeping serenely on the mattress. She looked much more peaceful sleeping than she did in wakeful moments.

Still, he had to do some things before he could fully relax. Carefully, he scooped up the sleeping Akane, who snuggled to his chest and muttered something indiscernible before settling down. She felt a little cold, so he made a mental note to turn the heat up when he got round to it. As gently and quietly as he could, he carried her up to another, much better decorated room- he remembered helping Akane choose the things for the room, holding her up so she could reach things. This was before they had started their relationship. The memories made him smile rather fondly until he recalled how cruelly they had been snatched from him.

In recent days, he'd found his 'to kill' list increasing, and though it should bother him, it didn't. The tranquility he'd experienced for the last two days... He would happily do anything to keep it and Akane with him. He didn't want to lose Akane. No way. _Not to anyone. For anything_.

He placed her on the mattress before throwing a duvet over her. He smiled as she nestled into it, amazed how nothing had stirred her from her slumber. It was better for the both of them that way, he decided as he grimaced, bracing himself for his next action. He hated himself for it, but it was necessary. Yes, definitely necessary. Delicately, oh so delicately, he lifted Akane's hands above her head, and gritted his teeth as he pulled out a pair of handcuffs from the bedside table, and deftly clipped them round her wrists so they were attached to the bed. "I'm sorry, Akane," he muttered. "When you wake up, I'll explain. I will. I promise." He kissed her forehead, as if soothing her before she panicked. "I don't want to hurt you. I would never hurt you." He studied her face for a minute, and almost felt guilty until he recalled why precisely he'd had to take such drastic measures.

Of all people, he never expected Ginoza to ruin things for him - after all, weren't they best friends? But no, Ginoza had betrayed him. Feeling an onslaught of negative emotions when looking at his beloved always made him see that gun pointed at her head by that bastard Togane. He clenched his fists involuntarily and turned sharply away. He had to turn the heating up. Mechanically, he left the room, locking it behind him, saying another sorry to Akane. It wasn't like she could hear him as it was. He wasn't so worried about being loud now, so he walked as fast as he could go the metre before cranking it up a few degrees. Hopefully she should be warm now.

He also had more to do for Akane's protection, which mostly entailed him fortifying his house, so any intruders would be dealt with accordingly. It kept out all sorts of threats from Iryo and the Naosu company that pretended it was so innocent. Kogami knew better.

A few hours later, Akane Tsunemori finally woke up from her rest, expecting to see Kogami lying next to her, sleeping just as soundly as she was. Her eyes widened, not out of their own accord, when she found the bed empty; maybe he's gone to make breakfast for them both, so she could finally taste his supposedly amazing cookin - wait a minute. She was full awake when she saw the room she was laid in. The one she'd spent the night in with Shinya last night did not have lilac walls - that much she knew. And that's when she noticed the weird position she was in- since when did she fall asleep with her hands above her head? That was just uncomfort - why couldn't she move them down? She peered back as far as she could and nearly screamed (out of fear or frustration, she had no idea) when she saw she'd been restrained to the bed. Her panic only served to increase when she realised she wasn't wearing anything either. Even a t-shirt could have given her the illusion of some protection at the very least. She knew that screaming right now wouldn't benefit her either - it would only alert her captor(s) that she had finally awoken.

There was the possibility that someone had drugged both her and Kogami and dragged them to an unknown location. She decided to try and get off the handcuffs in some way, though she knew her success wasn't guaranteed. They allowed a little movement, though hardly any that it barely counted. She squirmed a little while, and tugged a little impatiently at them. She froze when she heard the lock in the door click. Pretend to be asleep or confront whoever walked in? They must have heard her moving around, so confrontation it was. Automatically, her eyebrows angled down and her teeth gnashed together - she could still use her legs as a weapon if needs be.

Her anger vanished briefly and was replaced by surprise when she saw just who her dreaded captor was. Kogami stood there with a small contented smile on his face, as if trying to comfort her, and with a tray of food in his hands. "Good morning, Akane," he greeted her, as if pretending nothing was wrong. Well, he wasn't putting anything past her that morning. "I made breakfast for a change."

"I don't really care about breakfast or your cooking right now, Shinya," she told him, not wanting to dance around the topic. "What the hell are you doing? Why the hell am I chained to the bed?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's so I can look after you," he told her, face quite serious as he put the breakfast down on the bedside table.

"Believe it or not, I'm quite capable of looking after myself," she responded. "Shinya. Undo these handcuffs. Now."

"I can't," he picked up the cutlery and began cutting the pancakes he'd made especially for her. "I might lose you again. Now say 'aaa'."

"I'm okay," she turned away. "I don't want anything you've made." She was fully aware she was being cruel to him, but she had every right to be a little bit pissed off considering he had actually just chained her to the bed. She took a quick peek at his face which changed from upset to angry to neutral in the space of several seconds.

"Akane, are you okay?" He asked finally. "You're not acting like yourself."

"Let's have a looong, biiig think about why that could be," she rolled her eyes. "I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that, oh, I don't know, _you've literally just kidnapped me_? Did that ever maybe just strike you as a possibility?"

"Akane, I know you must be angry but if you let me explain-"

"Explain what? Oh, 'I did this because I love you'?" She glared at him. He looked surprised at the sudden change in her demeanour.

"But I do. This is to protect you, I promise. Once I've dealt with everything that needs dealing with, I'll let you go and we can live happily, just like we've always wanted. Deal?" She didn't reply. "Akane? Do you hate me?"

Memories of the previous night flitted through her head, and memories from the last few weeks weaves themselves in. "I don't hate you, that's too extreme," she chose carefully. "You're just annoying me right now by refusing to take off these cuffs. If this is a joke, it's not funny."

"No, it's not a joke," he admitted. "Come on, eat something before it goes cold. I don't want you getting hungry." He lifted up the fork again and pressed it softly to her lips.

"I told you, I'm-" the second she attempted to retort he shoved the pancake morsel into her mouth and left her no choice but to chew it and swallow it as he watched her expectantly, as if waiting for praise or forgiveness. To his credit, it was pretty delicious, much better than Kagari's food, but she wasn't going to tell him; neither was she going to put him down. She glowered at him.

"How was it?"

"Edible," she told him truthfully.

"Okay," he seemed to take this in a good way (she had no idea how or why) and stabbed another scrap. "Open wide, Akane." He held it out, and she drew her mouth in a thin line, and almost groaned in annoyance when her stomach growled. Still, she kept her mouth firmly clamped closed. She could see Shinya getting a little irritated with her behaviour; maybe he would relent after a while and apologise. After all, he 'loved' her, right? "Come on, Akane, stop acting like this."

The man himself was frowning, and was slightly confused by Akane's behaviour. Maybe he had better explain himself a little better.

"Look," he sighed, putting down the plate and fork finally. "I know how bad this seems, but it's just…" he nodded sternly to himself, pushing himself onwards. "Ginoza. I don't like it."

"I'm pretty sure Ginoza is a person, not an object," she quipped, and he smiled before returning to his sullen frown.

"No, that's not what I meant. He's getting too close to you and I don't like it," he practically growled.

"Oh, get over yourself," she rolled her eyes. "This is ridiculous, Kogami." She relaxed a little, knowing getting angry wouldn't bode well. Calm, Akane, calm and mature. "You're kidnapping me because you're jealous."

"Not just that," he protested. "He didn't keep his hands to himself, did he?"

"Huh?" _Oh dear. How had he found out about that? Please tell me that's not what set him off! It was an accident and it was one time and I even told him-_

"He didn't, did he?"

"Kogami, listen," Akane spoke softly. "It's true, Ginoza did kiss me five days ago-"

"So you see why?"

"No," she told him. "However, I did tell him not to do it again, and he agreed. So the business is over with. You know the only person I could ever love is you. The idea that I'd ever love someone who isn't you is stupid." Her words seemed to have some effect and he eased a little, perhaps considering maybe letting her go. "See? You're being a bit of an idiot. But you're my idiot."

"Thanks, Akane," he smiled, and kissed her forehead.

"You trust me?"

"I've always trusted you."

"So will you untie me now?" she prompted gently.

"Sorry, I can't. I trust you, believe me. It's Gino that's the problem. So you have to stay here, where you're safe from him," Kogami's tone was dark again, and his eyes bereft of any emotion, the traces of the smiling Shinya gone. He picked up the still warm food and held it up. "Eat this."

"I'm not hungry," she lied, trying to ignore the ache in her stomach.

"Liar. You're hungry," he pressed it to her lips again. "Come on, I'm looking after you. Don't you trust me?"

 _Not when you're like this, I don't. Who knows what you'll do? You haven't always been like this, have you? That's impossible, you couldn't have been. What happened, Kogami? What?_ "I trust you to protect me when the situation arises," she selected her words carefully. "But I don't need you to protect me right now."

"Akane," he simply said her name. "I can't lose you, not again." He lifted the food. "Please just eat this. I made it especially for you. You like pancakes, don't you? It's your favourite."

* * *

Far away, back at the house, Ginoza and the rest of his team were watching CCTV footage from several days ago, with a program running in the background that would alert them if it saw either Shinya or Akane's faces, but so far, it hadn't turned up any results. He was irritated as it stood that the files they'd recovered from Banken were complete flukes, and now his best friend and Akane magically vanish into thin air.

How? How the hell did they (or would it be more accurate to say he, Kogami?) manage to evade CCTV cameras for several days? The last they heard was that they were going on a date, they would be back soon, and that was it. Nothing. Vanished. Dropped off the face of the earth.

With a vaguely annoyed humph, he sat on the sofa and buried his head in his hands. Why? If this was because of what he did a few days ago – which he had and hadn't regretted on and off for the entire duration – then he was going to punch his best friend. What was with him? He'd been even more tetchy and on edge for the whole week, even more so than usual.

He wished he could understand precisely what Kogami was thinking, but any hope of that died a long time ago. Was Akane okay? That's what he was worried about. Dammit, he was going to give Kogami a piece of his mind when they finally tracked the insane bastard down.

Ginoza hardly kept it a secret from his best friend that he may have had feelings for Akane at one point, and had pretended to have become less attracted to Akane as time went on, but this was a lie. She was the same honest, principled woman he'd met all that time ago. And he had no idea why he did it, maybe just so he could say that he'd done it just once, but yes, he had kissed her. She'd told him not to do it again and he happily complied. Wasn't that enough for Kogami? How the hell did he find out? He wasn't even in the damned building when it happened, and Akane promised not to tell him.

 _You fool, Kogami. You fool, Ginoza_ , he thought darkly. _Now what's going to happen to the both of us? And Akane for that matter? Knowing you, we'll all end up dead._

* * *

 **[Please review, it's giving me motivation to continue!]**


	12. Utsutsukowashi-hen 2 : Kannenka

**Utsutsukowashi-hen: Kannenka /** _Reality Breaking Chapter: Ideation_

 **MARCH 21** **ST** **2025**

When he was nine years old, Nobuchika Ginoza's mother was murdered. When he was nine years old, he witnessed the slow and steady decline of his father. When he was nine years old, he encountered true insanity.

Following hearing news of his mother's death, he'd sprinted far, far away from his grandmother and grief-stricken father, ignoring the heavy downpour that soaked him to his skin. He ran and ran and ran until he arrived at the park, crawling pathetically to shelter under the sweeping willow he'd often go with her on the weekends, where they would talk, or she'd read stories to him, or they would generally enjoy each other's company.

She couldn't be dead, he'd believed at the time. It was only last Saturday they had been sat there, curled up on a picnic blanket. He'd been playing a video game and she'd been sleepily watching him. After that, she'd ruffled his hair and told him what a kind boy he was. No, she couldn't have possibly died in that short amount of time – she couldn't have possibly died in such a cruel and quick way. He hadn't even had chance to tell her that he loved her so much. He had stayed there, shivering, until a policeman came and collected him when he was sleeping.

Then, there had been arguments – his grandmother begging his father to be strong for his son, and his father howling and sobbing. Then came the drinking, and the nasty temper that flared up at the slightest provocation. His father didn't do anything but smoke, drink and cry, mumbling his mother's name, until Ginoza was utterly convinced he would go absolutely insane. Didn't his father understand he was sad too? His grandmother told him he needed to take care of his father, so that one day his father could start taking care of him again. So Ginoza cooked, cleaned, and started acting as his mother had done before her untimely death.

But his father had gotten angry one night out of many, yelling that Ginoza couldn't replace Sae no matter what he did. Then he'd broken down sobbing again, telling his son that he was sorry when the boy started crying too.

All his friends left him – nobody knew what to say to the sad little boy who would randomly burst out in tears every now and then.

At long last, nearly two months after her death, his father had finally dragged himself out of bed and gone to work and not returned for eighteen hours. Nobuchika found it near impossible to sleep without his father in the house, and passed out from pure exhaustion. When he awoke the next day his father still hadn't returned. Three days passed until he did, and he returned home in an excitable silly mood.

"I know who killed your mother, Nobubu!" he'd told him, eyes flashing. "I'll get him, for the both of us. I'll make him pay for what he did to your mother!"

As time went on, his father got more and more creative, until at the ripe old age of fourteen years, Nobuchika decided he'd had enough, and moved in with his grandmother. He vowed from that point on, he would never get so attached to a human being that they would drive him to mental instability, and that he would never speak to his father again. He cut all ties with him – refused to see him when he visited, blocked his number and ripped up the old-fashioned letters and e-mails he sent him. When he was sixteen, his father completely disappeared from his life.

And no, he did not miss him. That was absurd.

High school life had improved – he had two friends, and that was all he needed, thank you very much. Risa and Kogami never discussed his home life, and veered away from the topic if needed be. He was aware of the people who had crushes on his best friend, and hoped with all his heart Kogami would never submit to the ridiculous, distracting notion of love, and he never did, for years and years.

Ginoza knew that all love was, and all it would ever be, was a mass of pain and suffering hidden in the guise of joy.

When Kogami fell in love with Akane, Ginoza was nothing short of terrified of his best friend, though many years had passed since his father's abandonment, but eventually relaxed when he got to know Akane a little bit better. And if he dared admit it – yes, she reminded him of his mother, just a little bit, with that innate kindness and optimism sparkling in her eyes. Hence, he was able to accept her, after a short time had passed.

And then, an event in his own life made him forget entirely about his best friend – perhaps borderline his true family – and focus on himself again. His father, the same one who felt obliged to pick an insane revenge quest over his own son, reared his head again, and disrupted the sanctuary that was his workspace. No reminders of family there. And now one had waltzed through the door with an official division change.

So Nobuchika decided to ignore the problem in hopes it would go away.

It didn't.

He focused solely on his friendship with Akane and Kogami, trying to keep them stable, trying to show his father that _he never needed him_ , and _**sure as hell didn't need him now**_. Those were definitely the happiest days of his life, with his dog, his friends, his stable career – finally, things were truly looking up for him. He hoped to whatever gods were out there, if any, that this happiness could last him a lifetime.

Of course, they dejected his plea and stamped all over it. Akane faded entirely from their lives for an unknown reason when they were halfway into investigating Mika Shimotsuki's sector of the Iryo Company (with Akane's knowledge, even he wasn't so backward as to sneak around behind her back).

It was at that point Ginoza realised that it wasn't just Shinya Kogami who loved Akane, but him. That day, he lost Kogami too, to alcohol and a raging desire for request. Ginoza did nothing but distance himself from the mistakes of the past. What a fool he'd been – he should have learned already, shouldn't he?

That still didn't stop his heart from hurting.

* * *

He'd been laid in bed since his alarm went off, staring at the ceiling. Worrying before bed always made him dwell on the past and relive the unpleasant parts of it – perhaps he should try those sleeping pills Shion had suggested a while ago. Saying that, it wasn't as if they would clear his doubts.

Kogami and Akane – or what was left of them, anyway – had gone missing, with nothing to indicate they were okay and out of harm's way. But, as horrible as it sounded, he suspected his old friend to have a role in that, and now he really was angry. What was Kogami doing? Sure, his behaviour had been erratic and off the charts, but this was too extreme, even for him. There was still no sign of the both of them – how could two people disappear and leave no trace behind?

He sighed heavily, shook his head and sat up, and was greeted instantly by an overly joyous dog sat up intently wagging his tail, tongue lolling out. Ginoza stared blankly at his happy expression and felt his cheeks twitch upwards in a happy smile himself. Maybe a short walk might make things a little easier. "Okay, we'll go for a walk," he told his dog, who jumped off the bed and followed Ginoza across the room as he quickly got ready. It seemed that nobody else was awake as he quickly departed the house – well, it was early, and they had been awake in the small hours of the morning. Goddammit, his life was one big headache after another.

Risa had left a note explaining she'd gotten up early and gone out; if he was lucky, maybe he would bump into her.

If Iryo wasn't playing up, it was Naosu, or if it was none of the two, it was Kogami. It was verging on ridiculous. He sighed to himself (not for the first, and certainly not for the last, time) as he entered the park, Dime impatiently tugging on his leash. The park was mostly empty, and he found his feet automatically heading for the willow from his childhood and once he'd reached it, he collapsed in front of it and let Dime off his lead so he was free to run around and sniff anything to his heart's content.

He leant his head back against the cool bark, closed his eyes and inhaled. The freshness of the grass – had it been recently mown? The scent of flowers lingering in the air and – coffee? He cracked open one eyelid to see a figure peering down at him, holding two takeaway coffees in their hands. "Good morning," he greeted the newcomer jovially.

"Am I alright to sit here? It's okay if you want your own space," Risa Aoyanagi spoke up finally. "I was kind of hungry, so I came out here to get some pastries."

"But we had food in the kitchen," Ginoza pointed out.

"Yeah, but not _good_ food, Nobuchika," she sat next to him on the grass. "Fattening food. Calories!"

"Alright, whatever," he shook his head softly.

"I would give you one, but I kind of need it." There was a short pause as they watched Dime chase after a butterfly. "What's bugging you?"

"What do you think?"

"Right, our idiot best friend," she chuckled breezily. "That is troubling, but I think you're worrying too much. Nothing bad will happen to either of them – Akane's too nice to hurt Ko, no matter how mad she is, and the last thing Ko wants is to harm Akane, regardless of how nuts he's gone." She took a long slurp of her coffee. "Ah, that hits the spot. But hey, Nobuchika?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't tell me you're still half asleep," she flicked him on the forehead. "I'm being serious! Anyway, don't you think Ko wasn't acting like himself this week?"

"Yeah, I had that thought earlier," he chided after a moment's careful consideration. "Ever since the incident six months ago, he's been unpredictable, but this week, he's been completely off the charts. His behaviour has been even more erratic." He looked down at the coffee and sipped it. "Paranoid, even. Even when there wasn't any imminent danger, he was acting like there was."

"Hmm. I wonder what was up with that. You think there was a trigger?"

"I made moves on someone he loves?" he joked, but there was a tiny shred of mirth behind it.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Risa chewed her pastry pensively. "It was before that anyway. I mean, it sure as hell didn't help, since he must think he'd been right all along."

"Right about what?"

"You tell me, Einstein," Risa bit into her croissant. "I want to eat all of these pretty damn quickly."

He studied Dime for a moment as he sniffed at the flowers, and then as his pet tried to eat them. "Risa, are you trying to tell me that Kogami was suspicious of us?" She made a gun with her fingers and fired it off. _Bullseye._ "Why?" That earned him a shrug.

"Okay-doke, so we –" she swallowed loudly. "- know that he was feeling more paranoid than usual. How is this helping us?"

"Well, wouldn't he do something that made him feel better again? Like my coming here, I suppose," Ginoza stared at the willow tree.

"You're onto something, Ginoza," Risa started her pain au chocolat.

"Do something that made him feel better…?" Ginoza sipped his coffee and watched a lonesome car drive by. "With Akane…" he allowed himself another silent sigh. "That could be anywhere. Like where they had their first date. Their home. Their holiday home a few towns over. The old college they first met."

"Oh right, that shut down, didn't it?" Risa chipped in, a tad unhelpfully. "You can cross that out – it must be full of bugs and all sorts of gross things, so I doubt that they're there."

"Not really, apparently it was bought by someone after it shut down, but what they're using it for, I'll never know," Ginoza sighed. "So looks like it's back on our list. The apartment where they went on their honeymoon. Hell, they could have gone to _Divine Blessing_ ,"

"The hospital?"

"Mm," he assented. "Shut down a year ago, still in usable condition. Wasn't popular with the people in these parts – they ended up going to the inner city hospital. It was just costing the city money, so they shut it down."

"Does it have water running to it still?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, he wouldn't set up camp somewhere illogical that doesn't have heating, electricity or water. You need those to get by, especially in chilly weather like this," she spoke with her mouth full. "That makes no sense."

"That explains why we haven't found footage of them – we've been looking in the wrong places," he groaned. "We've wasted so much goddamn time."

"It's not like we could check CCTV anyways for those places – there's literally no CCTV in that area for privacy reasons, which makes our job just that bit harder." She drained the last of her coffee and stood up. "Well, if you insist that we've wasted time, why are you sitting around here? Hurry your ass up."

* * *

In a location she had yet to figure out, Akane Tsunemori's predicament had gotten ever so slightly better. She was no longer bound to the bed, and in fact had freedom to move about the room, but limited to just out of reach of the door handle – not that it was important anyway, it was still bolted shut. It had taken nearly a day of refusing to talk to Kogami for this free movement, and she needed the exercise. Her legs were stiff as anything, regardless of the amount of massages Kogami had given her.

She was sat at the desk, trying to ignore the strange weight around her left wrist which still chained her to the bed. It wasn't so bad now – maybe some more persuasion might just do the trick. And then she might be able to find some way of contacting the people they'd left behind and warn them that Shinya's mental state had somehow worsened.

There was little doubt in her mind that Ginoza's kiss had something to do with it, but it wasn't the be all and end all. Someone else was playing this game from the shadows, and she had no idea just who or what they were trying to achieve.

* * *

 **[As always, please review. I always get worried people don't like my stuff, and I'm always looking to improve!]**


	13. Utsutsukowashi-hen 3 : Higeki

**Utsutsukowashi-hen: Higeki /** _Reality Breaking Chapter: Tragedy_

 **MARCH 21** **ST** **2025**

The loud click from the door made Akane jump out of her skin, inadvertently dropping the game console in her hands on the table. She picked it up again, quickly checking for chips or cracks – though judging by what she'd seen during her time with Kogami, a handheld like this was easily replaceable. Still, that didn't stop her from feeling guilty.

With a loud creak, the door opened to reveal Kogami stood there, surprisingly not carrying anything as he always did when he came in. Clothes, books, games. Anything to convince Akane that he was a nice person really. "Good morning, Akane," he greeted genially, closing the door quietly behind him before coming behind her and wrapping his arms around her. With a contented sigh, he rested his head on her shoulder. "How are you? Do you need anything?"

"No, I'm alright," she replied. "How are you? Do you need anything?" she mimicked him, and she felt his smile against her skin before shaking his head.

"I want to show you something," he finally straightened out of their embrace and released the binding around her wrist, but interlinking their fingers. She didn't particularly feel like making a dash for it – she'd have to get her bearings first, if she did. She stood up as well and followed him a little cautiously out the room, keeping an eye on her surroundings. Maybe she'd find out where her phone was, and then she could contact Ginoza. Suddenly, she found her face slamming into Kogami's back as he stopped short. "I just thought – you should be hungry, right? Do you want anything to eat?"

"I'm alright for now," she declined politely. "What is it that you wanted to show me?"

He nodded grimly to himself and indicated for her to continue following him. Eventually, he led her into a grandiose room that made even her eyes widen – it looked something out of her dreams. It didn't even seem real as she blinked up at the gold chandelier glistening over her head, but somehow, it seemed perfectly cosy and homelike. He sat her down on the sofa (which she sunk further into then she predicted) and quickly signalled that he was going to be a second as he went to go and get something from the table tucked in the corner of the room. When Kogami walked back over, she finally saw what he was going to collect for her. A digital photoframe and a small box.

"Kogami, why are you doing this? You need to let me out soon. We have work to do, remember? Mika? Iryo? Togane?" she questioned him softly. But his eyes were far away and her words fell on deaf ears.

Finally, he spoke. "I thought I'd lost you forever the last time I let you go. I failed you. I was supposed to protect you – I made a vow, goddammit!" His eyebrows creased downwards and he looked so furious Akane's blood briefly ran cold, but it settled back again. "I failed you. I'm so sorry… but that means I need to do it right this time, because I have a second chance."

"What are you talking about? You're not making sense right now," she prompted.

"I know you didn't believe me when I first told you," he stared almost gently at the box in his hands, before opening it and handing it to her. "See – this was yours." The ring was relatively light and incredibly intricate. The gemstone set in the top of the silver band seemed to shimmer light blue when the light caught it, with two equally coloured stones either side of it, only slightly smaller. The remainder of the ring was pressed with tiny crystals as the silver swirled around in intricate designs. "We're married." He said shortly as she stared in amazement at it.

"Kogami… that… what?" she wished she could say something more, but what could be said?

"Still no memories at all?" he seemed to be hinting at something. "Oh, well. That was expected." He shook his head. "No matter. Here." He handed her the digital photoframe, before clicking it on. A photo of her and Kogami drifted onto the screen – they appeared to be at a restaurant of some sort, and a few years younger. She'd wager around five years previous. "We met at a university. You sat in the second row when I came in to give a guest lecture – I was working with the feds at the time, so the thought of ever getting settled never occurred to me. Nor did I think you'd actually come and talk to me about the material we'd covered in the lecture rather than asking for my number." He smirked at that, and Akane spared him a smile as more images flicked onto the screen. Obviously, they had happened but to her, they seemed like they belonged to another person. Another Akane, because no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring the memories back. "We kept meeting in tea shops, coffee houses and parks after that. You loved criminology and justice – and I doubt that has changed, even if you have lost your memories. I read your thesis on behavioural analysis, and I felt glad to meet you. I guessed that would be the last time I saw you once you'd finished your class, but fate threw us together a second time. I got an offer to work as a body guard to a very wealthy company's heiress." He turned to face her. "You."

"What? Mika told me I never had any…" she trailed off and frowned. "Of course she'd say that, she didn't want to trigger anything."

"Right. I was considerably surprised when I saw you stood in the office. I remember as we got closer, you'd often come crying about how the company lived your life for you – from who you talked to and even your hobbies. I didn't want to be unprofessional but we kept meeting and talked for hours about anything and everything. We talked a lot about books – Pride and Prejudice was your favourite, and that hasn't changed, I see. I read it to you when you were sad, even though you could recite parts of it from memory."

"Still can," she commented as she flicked through the album before stopping on a picture of the two of them with very red faces, Kougami looking as if he was laughing at the very abashed Akane.

"Ah, that!" his eyes lit up in recognition. "That was the night of your twentieth birthday. You asked me for a dance, since it was just the two of us. You kept stepping on my toes but you finally got the hang of it. And I don't know what came over me, but… that was the first time I kissed you." He took a deep inhale before sighing. "From then on, we started a relationship which your family hardly approved of. I would never force you into it, but you said yourself that you wanted to stay with me. Which is always a good thing to hear from someone you love. Your family would never consider me a son-in-law; there were socioeconomic boundaries after all, and they'd accuse me of seducing you for money. Though you probably don't recall this either, but you worried incessantly about burdening me, and every time I assured you that you weren't. So we made plans to tell your parents, and if they removed you, you'd look for a place in the justice system." His face tensed, as did his entire body, like he was recalling something awful. "You came home, stressed and defeated, because they refused to let you go. They gave us permission to marry, but couldn't recognize me as part of the family." He eased slightly. "I told you it would be okay because we were enough for each other and-" Abruptly, he cut off.

"And..?"

"-that was the first night we made love." He turned away from her and pointed at the empty frame on one side of the wall. "You see that frame there? You wanted to keep it for the day we got a wedding picture. I don't know what happened to it, but obviously, it's gone now." He sighed, as if broken and defeated by something. "But that doesn't matter. We have each other, our home, and our life together." He clutched her close, as if terrified to ever release her again. "I promise, I'll treasure you forever."

Akane had no idea where the dampness in her eyes had come from – she wanted nothing more than to just remember, but like a happy dream, it had vanished. Was it really lost from her forever?

"Why…" she trailed off. "Why was all of this kept from me?"

"Because that Shimotsuki bitch didn't want you to live 'that kind of life'," his voice was filled with scorn.

"She has no right to do that. That was my choice to make, not hers!" A swell of fury burst in Akane's chest and she felt her very blood boil. Kogami seemed to be scared of her sudden reaction, but simply peered down at her in concern. He tried to touch her shoulder, but she flinched away from it, and he looked like he'd been punched in the gut. Akane focused her attention on the digital photoframe, flicking through photograph after photograph, the frustration increasing with every picture that passed her eyes. Memories that weren't, but were hers.

Then a picture popped on screen which made her entire body feel paralysed. Ice ran through her veins, bypassing her heart and turning it frosty. In fear? Who could say? Her fingers began to tremble, and the tears in her eyes did naught but make the image displayed in front of her turn blurry. "Akane?" Kogami looked at her questioningly. She didn't respond for a while, before turning to him, as awkwardly and stiffly as a porcelain doll. Her muscles felt useless, and her legs shook, and she knew that if she tried to stand, she'd only fall.

A bright blue eyed baby with a tuft of brown hair stared up at her.

"Kogami…" she took a deep breath. "What the hell is this…?"

Kogami seemed unable of speech.

"That's…" he seemed to choke on his words and he fell silent. "That's our son."

"Oh," she responded quietly. "Where is he?"

He didn't say anything.

"Did something happen to him?"

Still, nothing but a wall of ugly silence.

"Tell me." Her voice felt strained. She felt dizzy.

"Hibiki." He responded with one word.

"Hibiki? That's the name you were using when I first met you. Again."

"Hibiki...was the name we picked for...our son," his sentence was broken, awkward, stiff, raw with emotion.

"Then this… this is… my baby... this is our child…" she didn't know whether to feel overjoyed or worried for her child. "Then, where is he? Shinya?" He looked away, balling his fists. "Shinya..?" Dread seemed to course through her, as if replacing the blood that ran through her veins. Why wasn't he saying anything? "Shinya! Where the hell is he?!" Kogami inhaled sharply and his entire body seemed to be on edge.

"I don't know," his voice was barely above a whisper, but it seemed so loud, almost deafening in Akane's ears. "I… don't know… what…"

"What do you mean, you don't know where? What does that mean 'you don't know what'? That doesn't make any sense! Shinya! Hey!" she was angry now – why was he dancing around the topic? Why was he lying? He knew something! He had to know something, _anything_! "Please, tell me, how does a person manage to lose his own son?"

Shinya made a quiet, throttled sound in his throat. "Quite easily. Too easily. Unfairly." He muttered, as if he didn't know Akane was there, as if he couldn't see her. His eyes had clouded over again, Akane noted. What… What?

"Enough of this! You know, I know you do! So I'll ask again – where is Hibiki?!"

It was Kogami's turn to face her, his movement hesitant and jolty. Then he froze, and his face lost all emotion, leaving nothing more than a shell of a man left.

"He's dead."

* * *

 **[Sorry I didn't update in a while. Writing this chapter upset me in places, since I began to feel bad at the torture I'd inflicted. I also would like to point out that I'm aware this is a controversial area, and depending on reader reactions, the ending may be subject to change. As always, please review, since it means a lot to me that you're continuing reading this!]**


	14. Utsutsukowashi-hen 4 : Shoushitsu

**Utsutsukowashi-hen: Shoushitsu /** _Reality Breaking Chapter: Loss_

 **MARCH 21** **ST** **2025**

Slowly, the world around her seemed to break down as she met the baby's gaze in the photograph. He was smiling. She wanted to be sick. She wanted to scream. She wanted to do nothing ever again. It felt like an oppressive weight bore down on her shoulders, threating to break every bone in her body. Not that it minded.

"Do you re-" Kogami tried to speak, but she cut across him.

"I don't want to. Maybe it's for the best I don't." Her voice sounded coarse, constricted by her throat. "It hurts when I don't remember. It'll be unbearable when I do." She threw the digital photoframe away from her, smashing the screen so she'd no longer have to look at it. Then she buried her face in her hands and tried to calm herself. It seemed to happen before she could stop it, and a scream managed to tear out of her before falling into silence.

Kogami didn't say anything after that. Simply just thought back.

 _He'd rushed home, almost panicked, near tears, semi-insane. Worry and fear tore through him like a starving wolf through flesh. His chest began to ache but he ignored it; had to ignore it. He pressed down the accelerator as far as it would go, and sped through the roads like a madman. Elevated breathing, blurry vision. Fear._

 _Once he'd reached his home, he ditched his car in the driveway and practically tore the door off its hinges as he sprinted inside. "Yeo!" he yelled. "Hey, Yeo! Are you here?! Have you got Hibiki? Yeo! Hey!" he screamed, dashing up the steps and crashing into his child's room._

 _The walls were a creamy colour, the floor streamed with toys, and he could have sworn he could have heard Akane's laughter combined with Hibiki's giggles, since she always spoiled him. Always played with him. Always hugging him. Always showing him affection._ Why the hell didn't I do that?! _His voice yelled at him in his mind. On the far wall was a happy scene Masaoka kindly painted on for them – a smiling rainbow dancing in a clear sky above a vibrant field of flowers, all of them so detailed. At one point, it almost seemed like you could reach out and skim your fingers among the petals and smell them, but the only scent permeating the air at that moment was the smell of blood, fresh blood, oozing from every corner of the room._

 _Blood splattered over Hibiki's happy scene too, staining it, probably forever. Feeling like his legs weren't necessarily attached to the rest of his body as he shuffled forward, his feet unnaturally clumsy. Yeo laid there, cheek pressed to the floorboards, her baby blue eyes staring into the void. The smile she always wore on her face wasn't there, and with a short noise of grief, he knelt down and closed her eyes. Bullet wound to the heart. Died instantly. He quickly analysed the scene._

 _It wasn't fair – Yeo always looked after Hibiki when his parents were at work, and she helped around the house when she could. She'd become much more than a babysitter, almost like a daughter to Shinya and Akane, a sister to Hibiki. It was her dream to one day raise enough money to go and find her brother in Cambodia. He straightened up. She'd have been with Hibiki, wouldn't she?_

 _The cot. Right. He peered in and found that it was empty. No happy, gurgling, bright-eyed baby boy here. Whether it was a good or bad thing, Shinya couldn't say._

 _A sharp ringing made him flinch away from the cot, before he realised that it was just his phone, so he quickly pulled it out of his pocket and answered. "Hello?"_

" _Can I speak to Shinya Kogami?" a voice said at the end, obviously scrambled._

" _Speaking."_

" _Well, suppose I can drop the act then," Sakuya Togane's voice floated through the receiver. "How are you coping with things, Kogami? I've been worried."_

" _Right, like hell you have," Kogami growled back. "What the hell do you want? I'm busy."_

" _Let me guess you're looking for a_ _ **little something**_ _."_

" _What the fuck have you done? Stop playing the fucking games and dancing around. Where is he?" Before he could say much more, he was silenced by the sound of an infant's wailing through the phone, near screaming. His tiny little voice sounded so rough, so dry. "Hibiki…" he trailed off, before snapping to reality. "What the hell are you doing to him? He's a child!"_

" _Mm," Togane seemed not be listening – the wailing just seemed to get louder and louder with every passing minute._ Hibiki, I'm sorry _, Kogami bid to his child._ I'll save you, where I couldn't save your mother. _"Can you hear me alright, Kogami? The reception's a little bad here."_

" _I can hear you just fine," he retorted._

" _Good, good."_

 _The wailing seemed to grow louder. Then he thought he heard something much more inaudible beneath the cries of his child. A click of a gun. What?_

 _There was a short bang. The wailing stopped, and the call ended._

 _Kogami had done nothing but sink to his knees and scream._

"I'm sorry," he whispered finally to Akane, who hadn't moved. "I shouldn't have shown you all of this. I shouldn't have upset you. This is all my fault." He gnashed his teeth together. "I should have protected the both of you."

Akane stood up languidly, stared at him, her eyes too white, pupils dilated before falling forward. Automatically, he leapt forward and caught her, shaking her a few times. "Akane! Hey, Akane!" he yelled. She finally responded, writhing and struggling with an invisible enemy.

"No… I don't want to remember… no… don't make me…" she whimpered against Kogami's shirt. "No more…"

Trying to keep her breathing as inaudible as possible and as inconspicuous as she could, Yayoi Kunizuka crept forward around the back of Divine Blessing Hospital. Ginoza and Aoyanagi had bade her check out this location on a hunch they'd both had – admittedly, she didn't personally think the two of them would be here, of all places; he would pick somewhere much more personal.

 _Not that this place didn't hold memories for the two of them_ , she thought to herself. _If a big shock managed to detract her memories, maybe a bigger shock could resuscitate them._ It was weird though – since it shut down, she expected the place to be quiet, desolate and somewhat unnerving. However, she was no Nobuchika Ginoza, and ghosts weren't a thing that scared her.

What did unnerve her though was the fact that the hospital seemed to be in use. She could see light peering through cracks in the windows, and it looked like someone had tried their damnedest to make sure it couldn't be seen by passers-by. Well, it was a secluded area, but who was using it?

Voices called out from somewhere behind her, and she quickly ducked behind a car, and as they grew closer, sliding under it. She lay there for a few moments, trying to pick out words as several pairs of shoes clomped past her eyes. They seemed to be heading towards the hospital, so she shifted into a position where she could track them. Once she laid her eyes on the small group, her blood ran cold.

Stood leading the group, a head shorter than the rest of them, was Rina Takizaki. In other words, Yayoi's ex-girlfriend. But the awkwardness that Yayoi felt wasn't connected to any personal feelings she had with Rina, but rather, what had happened the last time the two had laid eyes on one another. It had been what? Two years? And if she was still getting up to her old tricks, then… something really, really wasn't right with his hospital. It could possibly even be connected to the team's current case; could Iryo be using this place as a location too? And where did Rina come into all of this?

The backdoor to the hospital entered, and a hooded man stepped out, and Yayoi found her inner-self rolling her eyes at the choice of clothing. It was a bad habit she'd adopted from Shion. Who wore white hoodies? They were hell to clean! Shaking her head, she chastised herself to get her mind away from fashion and onto the task at hand, so strained her ears and attempted to listen as closely as she could to what was said.

"Do you have what I asked for?" the hooded man spoke out first.

"We do," Rina agreed stiffly. "The money, first, though." The hooded man sighed and handed over a briefcase.

"Half of it is in there. I'll pay you the other half when I see what you've brought with me, and when I give you your weekly quota."

"Hopefully, you've upped it this time. It's hell to space it over a week – everyone's heard of your 'miracle'," Rina told him, passing the briefcase to one of her cronies. "Takamatsu. Take this back to the car and bring it here and show this guy what we managed to pick up."

"Yes, ma'am," the man with the briefcase hurried off. Yayoi frowned – what were these two unlikely business partners exchanging? Silently, she got out from underneath her current car and crawled on her hands and knees to reach a car a little closer, but still relatively hidden. Takamatsu came back a few minutes later in what wasn't really a car, but a dirty old van. Yayoi recognized that van; when she was in there last, it had been filled with musical equipment. And now… Takamatsu opened the van, and she couldn't exactly see what was in them. Whatever it was seemed to appease the white hoodie clad man, who threw the other briefcase at Rina, who in turn ordered the rest of her group to start taking whatever it was into the hospital behind them.

Her eyes widened, yet she made no noise to indicate the shock she was feeling when she saw just what they were. She could only thank whatever Gods were above that Kagari hadn't been assigned here, or things really would get messy. Test subjects.

Once that task had been completed, some workers from the hospital emerged carrying large boxes, and it was impossible to tell what was in them. Well, to a lesser trained person it would be. It could only be drugs, and if it was Iryo's drugs then that certainly was a cause for concern.

Yayoi lay in her hiding spot for another thirty minutes after they had left before daring to emerge. As soon as she stood up, she scanned the area for imminent signs of danger and ran as if her life depended on it into the shadows.

Ginoza's eyes narrowed out of instinct when he saw lights shining out from one of the windows on the second floor. That suggested that somebody was inside and paying the electric bill, and from the way things were sounding, it was likely to be them, since none of the team had found them anywhere else. However, Yayoi had said she noticed something very unusual at Divine Blessing Hospital, but she'd discuss it in person when the team was back together, as she felt like it had nothing to do with the vanished couple.

Quietly, he edged around the perimeter to get closer to the door. Not to his surprise, it was locked, so carefully, he crouched down and began to attempt to unlock it using the bog standard set everyone on the team was given. Kagari was more skilled at this stuff then he was with his more nimble fingers, but finally, after seven painstaking minutes of trying to open the door and not get caught by whoever was upstairs, he heard a familiar click. Quickly, he shoved it back in his coat pocket and pulled out the stun gun. "Just in case," he muttered to himself.

The split second he entered, a blood curdling scream shattered the air. Now there was no doubt about it. He brought his stun gun just that bit closer and proceeded further in the house. The minute he took a single step, he saw something fall from the ceiling and jumped away from it as quickly as he could. A loud bang told him the danger had passed so Ginoza peered over his shoulder at the offending object. It was an old rusting bucket that once held the items littered on the floor around it. If that had hit him, there was no doubt that he would either be dead or severely injured.

The things that would have fallen on Nobuchika Ginoza had he not jumped away were countless pairs of scissors and iron nails.

So this was how it was, was it? Then he'd need to keep his wits about him. There was no doubt the person who had set up a trap like that was Kogami and his twisted mentality.

If Kogami wasn't willing to spare Ginoza's life, or anyone else's, for that matter, then Ginoza certainly wasn't prepared to spare Kogami if it came down to it.


	15. Utsutsukowashi-hen 5 : Hahen

**Utsutsukowashi-hen: Hahen /** _Reality Breaking Chapter: Fragmented_

 **MARCH 21** **ST** **2025**

Akane barely felt Kogamis's arms around her as she crouched there, trembling like a newborn kitten, eyes staring at something even Kogami couldn't see. The calls of her name seemed distant in her ears, almost as if he wasn't there at all. Scenes flashed through Akane's mind, but the ones that stuck out the most was Hibiki. Hibiki. "Hibiki," she muttered. And then she howled, like the agony has finally taken a form of its own and was frantically tearing out of her body.

Finally, she turned to Kogami. "He was our child!" her screams grew more and more frantic. "He didn't deserve this! No, no please tell me this isn't true, no, please no! He was innocent! He had nothing to do with any of this! Our baby! No… why… why?! Shinya! Tell me why?! Why did this happen? Why?" She punched his chest as if needing some place to vent, but she knew that each impact was weak and not doing much to her husband.

"Aka-" he began to say her name, but was cut off by a sharp gunshot. The bullet caressed his cheek, slicing it in an icy cold burn. Without thinking too much about it, he pushed Akane away from a potential enemy and spun around to face them, bringing his fists in front of his face… before lowering them. "G… Gino?" His sudden surprise was overridden by insurmountable fury. "Of course."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ginoza snapped, holding the gun level; Akane could tell that he wouldn't shoot again. Whoever Ginoza was, he wasn't a killer, and he certainly wouldn't ever harm his friends on purpose. Yet, it hardly mattered that she knew that- from the look in Kogami's eyes, it didn't seem like he could understand Ginoza that well. _What's happened to the three of us? We were best friends at one point. What… happened?_

"Oh, don't give me that shit," Kogami brought his fist back and before Ginoza could dodge it, it slammed into his jaw. To Ginoza's credit, he withstood it, though it did send the glasses on his face crashing onto the floor. "I knew that it would be you – all this time, that's what you've been up to?!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ginoza wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "You're not making any sense!" The gun had clattered out of his hands and fell near Akane's feet. She stared at it for a moment, before hiding it behind her. It was best to keep any kind of deadly force away from Kogami or Ginoza.

"Akane!" Kogami hissed through his teeth.

"Oh, please, you're not the only one who cares about her – her grandmother is worried sick, as is everyone else back at the house. And yeah, I was really worried about her too!" he snapped.

"You'll know you'll never be reciprocated, right?" Kogami lunged at Ginoza again, but Ginoza parried it and kicked at Kogami's leg and knocking him down. Kogami wasted little to no time and slammed Ginoza on the floor almost in a choke hold. "I've waited so long to find her again, and you're not going to take her from me, Gino!"

"Did you maybe think, that this happened for a reason? That maybe it was time for Akane to not be held down by you?" he challenged and throwing Kogami across the room.

"You bastard!" Ginoza barely had time to react before Kogami's knee slammed into his stomach. "I said I'd protect her, and that's what I'm going to do!"

"You've gone insane, Kogami. I don't even know how you expect to protect Akane if you're so easily inclined to hurt her," his comment came like a slap to the face to Kogami.

"I would never hurt her!" His fist slammed into the wall to the side of Ginoza's head, and the man himself was a little grateful it had missed; he and his nose wouldn't be coming back from that. "What happened to being brothers, Gino?!"

"We stopped being brothers when you went insane!" Ginoza snapped. Without realizing it, Kogami had seized Ginoza and flung him less than elegantly into the floor, and tried to kick him in the ribs, but the other man had already predicted this and grabbed desperately at Kogami's ankle and pulled him on the floor too. Because of this, he got an elbow in the face, and the blood that spilled out of his nose dripped rather quickly down his face. "Shit."

Kogami recovered quicker than Ginoza did and brought his hands up in front of his face as Ginoza clambered more than awkwardly to his feet. "Gino, I swear, I don't mind giving you anything ever, but not Akane!" At his statement, Ginoza smirked, and retaliated.

"Maybe you just don't deserve her."

"You bastard!" Kogami lunged at Ginoza and slammed him back on the floor, the impact sounding extremely painful. Akane felt herself wincing, and then staring at the gun on the floor. Quietly she reached for it, watching the scene levelly.

Kogami had found a way to swing the situation back into his favor. Ginoza had barely any time to register precisely just what had happened when he felt a sudden pressure on the column of his throat, pressing down on it, squeezing it. And that's when it became impossible to breathe, each breath he tried to suck in being denied. "I didn't want to kill you, Gino, but if you're getting in my way, then-"

"Stop it."

Akane's voice cut through the scene, and subconsciously Ginoza's green eyes flicked to her face.

"Don't you understand? I'm doing this for us, Akane. If I get rid of him, that's one person down that's going to-"

"I said stop!"

A solitary gunshot rang through the air.

* * *

The Naosu company president sat in front of the monitor with his two closest assistants, watching the scene unfold, a smirk playing on his lips. "Well, I have to say _that_ certainly surprised me." He took a sip of the cup of tea that had been provided for him, draining it. "People change so easily. What a shame."

"What, like you didn't have any part in this?" the lackey sat on his right grinned.

"I did no such thing, Choe, I merely sped it up," the president zoomed in on the face of Shinya Kogami on the monitor. "Maybe it was best for the two of them that I did."

"Yes, I agree," the lackey on the left nodded solemnly. "After all, when one learns to love, they bear the risk of hatred. This is a prime example of this."

"Maybe Miss Tsunemori – or rather, Mrs. Kogami – should have learnt her lesson the first time around. I did warn her that her cousin was doing something _rather unorthodox_ … and I warned her twice, now, and counting." He laughed, thinking of a joke that only he found humorous. "Sometimes, giving someone a second chance is like giving them an extra bullet for their gun because they missed you the first time."

"Still, I didn't expect her to actually shoot him!" Choe Gu-Sung snorted.

"Well, another obstacle is out of the way, at the very least," Rikako Oryo agreed. "That must make you happy, Mr. Makishima."

"Very happy indeed," the president agreed, pouring himself another cup of tea. "But something tells me that he isn't quite eliminated yet." He shrugged. "It does prove that our drugs are ready to be released. Iryo hasn't even produced an effective first batch."

"So that means we're winning?"

"It's not a matter of victory or not, Miss Oryo," Makishima turned away from the screen. "But our ideated world of free will and chaos is closer than we think to Iryo's proposed world of muted serenity and suppressed emotions. Doesn't that sort of world sound incredibly boring?"

"And what kind of world is Akane Tsunemori looking for?" Choe asked. "She doesn't seem like the type of person to like either of Naosu's or Iryo's worlds."

"With her, I'd imagine… a world filled with _justice_ ," Makishima spat the word off like venom. "Justice in this caged city is just rules made by those in authority so they can have easy lives. I'm tired of this city; all around the world, it's just the same. I need to destroy it, and it's becoming increasingly harder to find a good spot to watch from."

"Mr. Makishima, if I may?" Rikako finally spoke up. "What about the current matter at hand? The more pressing matter?"

"Right, if you're referring to the incident at Divine Blessing earlier this evening, I'm leaving that in your hands. If we lull them into a false sense of security, we may be able to trap them and Iryo at the same time," Makishima smiled at the memory of the retreating back of the woman affiliated with Shinya Kogami's group – Yayoi Kunizuka, if memory served. She must think that she had successfully escaped, when in reality, she'd accidentally exposed her group monitoring Naosu. He was aware that they had been doing for a while, especially Shinya Kogami, who had distrusted him from the day they first met at a strained Iryo and Naosu meeting.

"I suppose this… first trail of sorts was successful. Excellent. We didn't give Takizaki an ineffective batch. If Iryo find out that we're distributing drugs straight away it may be a tad… problematic."

There was a short pause.

Additionally, Choe, keep a close eye on that Kamui. He's definitely hiding something, and one could only wonder what."

* * *

Far away, in another office, Mika Shimotsuki stood tapping her foot against the floor impatiently. "Quit it." Togane snapped from across the room, as irritated as she was. "Well, what are you going to do to solve this mess?!"

"Oh, don't give me that!" Mika retorted, folding her arms across the chest. "Why do I have to sort out your screw ups for you?!"

"My screw-ups? That's funny, I thought you were the one in charge, _Madam President_ ," he snarled back. "This has gone from bad to worse under your supervision. Tsunemori recovers her memories, runs off with Kogami, blows up Banken, fucks up our plans here, and now she disappears off the face of the earth. And now, we have two more things to deal with – Naosu's acting up already, and you lost sight of the only thing we had to gain an advantage over the sick pair of lovebirds. Tell me how this is my fault."

"You were the one in charge of caring for Taisho A. This is not my fault. It's not," Mika pouted. "Now we don't even know where the hell it is so there's no way of tracking it down." She sniffed, before smiling. "I suppose you're going to run to mommy now and complain that everything's going wrong. _Help me, Mommy_!" she imitated a wailing voice.

Togane's fist clenched.

"But telling her that you're fucking up the one thing she asked you to do, could you? She'd get angry and put you on the naughty step. So here's what I suggest you do- you go and find Taisho A, and bring it straight back here. As quickly as you can!" her tone was mocking, but she didn't care. "Otherwise, it's not going to just be your mother who's going to be angry."

"Do you think you scare me?" he challenged her.

"Not at all. But I know Mommy does. After all, don't you want to make her very proud?" her tone was still teasing him and pissing him off. Belittling him reminded her that she was still in charge here. "Well, that's all you have to do, Togane." She smiled. "Bring him back. Hibiki Kogami."

* * *

 **[Sorry about the wait: I've had some personal problems- depression creeping up and screwing me over, you know the drill... and i've had writers block. This chapter is shorter than most and a bit choppy and changy, but I just wanted to move the story onwards. As always, please review since it motivates me to keep writing!]**


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